Sweetness of Dhikr
October 5, 2007أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
…without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest. Q.13.28
Why do we find rest in the dhikr of Allah?
The Soul
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Our souls (ruh, pl arwah) by their nature are drawn to it’s Creator, they remember when in the pre-wordly life Allah asked them “Alastu biRabbikum?” - “Am I not your Lord?”. To which they replied “We testify that indeed You are”. Our Ruh longs to return to it’s Lord, through dhikr the heart awakens and reminds the soul of it’s origin.
The Body
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Contrary to the phrase “sticks and stones may break my bones but words never hurt” - words do effect the physical world. A study by Dr Masaru Emoto showed interesting results of how water is effected by sound and thought (our bodies are made of approximately 60% water - lungs and heart 90%). Dhikr polishes the heart and organs, cleanses them of the stains from sins.
The Intellect
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We believe the intellect (’aql) remains after death, therefore we are still able to ‘think’ and we have consciousness after death. By regularly thinking about death and the afterlife (dhikr ul-mawt wa ma ba’dahu) we are preparing for this phase of our existence, so when we find ourselves still conscious in the grave and find we may not be alone in there, and when Nakir and Munkar appear, we aren’t surprised and confused. Because we knew this was going to happen, our Iman of this was strong in the dunya, insha Allah.
There are many other benefits for our Body, Mind and Spirit. Our whole being will surely find rest when all of these faculties are working properly and in synch - i.e we hold the correct beliefs about Him (Iman/aqidah), we obey His laws (Islam/fiqh) and we sincerely yearn for His good pleasure (Ihsan/tasawwuf).
A few good articles on dhikr - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Sweetness can only be experienced by tasting. Some people taste the sweetness straight away for others it takes longer. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to taste the sweetness, the important thing is you are doing it. Sometimes Allah takes away the sweetness to test our sincerity, are we doing it for the sweetness or for the sake of Allah?
The true Servant of Allah doesn’t worship Him for the sweetness, he worships Allah because Allah deserves to be worshiped, he worships out of gratitude to Allah. For this is what he was created for, to know Allah.
May Allah make our tongues moist from his remembrance, and may He accept all our ibadah, amin.
