Remembrance of God

Dhikr, or the remembrance of God, is at the same time a forgetting of the self. Each time one sits down with a set of rosary beads, or recites the Holy Qur’an, or listens to a talk about God Most High, one should make the intention to forget the self. One should forget about past or future and be in the present. 

May God help us to remember Him often. May we be granted the station of the dhaakireen (those who remember God often). 

This is a poem to help us remember the importance and sweetness of remembrance.   

Dhikr

Remembering God’s names*

Like Al-Aleem and al-Baseer

Makes me feel known

And makes me feel seen

Reciting the Qur’an

Especially Yaa’seen

Is like returning to a friend

Who asks “where have you been?”

Sitting in a gathering

Where God is mentioned often

Lifts one’s spirits high

And makes the heart soften

Reading stories

About those who yearned for God

Makes one yearn also

Provides the missing prod

Strolling through nature

With senses alive
Leads to knowing God

Through all five

Not sulking about yesterday

Not stressing about tomorrow

Fifteen minutes clicking my misbaha**

Washes away my sorrow

*In the Islamic tradition, God is said to have 99 names or attributes.

**Misbaha is the Arabic word for rosary beads.