Dua for a job interview (ease and eloquence)

When. Before anything that has to be said out loud and could go badly: an interview, a lesson you are teaching, a confrontation you have been avoiding, an exam viva. It is Qur'an — Ta-Ha 20:25-28 — and belongs to Musa at the moment he is sent to Pharaoh.

The words. Ishrah li sadri is literally "expand my chest". Arabic locates courage and constriction in the chest rather than the stomach or nerves, so this is not a metaphor for confidence; it asks for room where there is currently pressure. Yassir li amri — make my matter easy — asks for the task itself to be smoothed, not for extra strength to endure it. The two are different requests and both are made.

Uqdatan min lisani — "a knot from my tongue". Uqdah is a physical knot in a rope, and Musa is asking for one to be untied, not for eloquence to be granted. He asks for the obstruction removed, and no more.

The clause that ends it. Yafqahu qawli — "so that they may understand my speech". The entire request is subordinated to a purpose, and the purpose is not that he speak well. It is that the listener grasps it. Everything before this is instrumental.

The setting. Musa makes this request having been told to go to Pharaoh, the most dangerous audience in the Qur'anic narrative, and with a speech difficulty he does not deny.

A shorter fallback. The middle phrase alone, Rabbi yassir li amri, is widely said on its own before a difficult task.