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What is Zikr ?

ZIKR Lit. "Remembering." The religious ceremony, or act of devotion, which is practised by the various religious orders of Faqirs, or Dervishes. Almost every religious Muhammadan is a member of some order of Faqirs, and consequently the performance of zikr is very common in all Muhammadan countries; but it does not appear that any one method of performing the religious service of zikr is peculiar to any order.

Zikrs are of two kinds

Zikrs are of two kinds: zikr jali, that which is recited aloud, and zikr khafi, that which is performed either with a low voice or mentally.

The Naqshbandiyah Order of Sheikhs usually perform the latter, whilst the Chishtiyah and Qadiriyah orders celebrate the former. There are various ways of going through the exercise, but the main features of each are similar in character. The following is a zikr jali, as given in the book Qaulu 'l-Jamil, by Maulawi Shah Waliyu 'Ilah of Delhi: -

"The worshiper sits in the usual sitting posture and shouts the word 'Allah' (God), drawing his voice from his left side and then from his throat.

Sitting as at prayers he repeats the word 'Allah' still louder than before, first from his right knee, and then from his left side.

Folding his legs under him, he repeats the word 'Allah' first from his right knee and then from his left side, still louder!

Still remaining in the same position, he shouts the word 'Allah', first from the left knee, then from the right knee, then from the left side, and lastly in front, still louder!

Sitting as at prayer, with his face towards Makkah, he closes his eyes and says "La" - drawing the sound as from his navel up to his left shoulder; then he says "ilaha" drawing out the sound as from his brain; and last "illa 'llahu," repeated from his left side with great energy.

Each of these stages is called a zarb. They are, of course, recited many hundreds of times over and the changes we have described account for the variations of sound and motion of the body described by Eastern travellers who have witnessed the performance of a zikr."

Importance of Zikr

We'd like to present the importance of bringing Zikr into our life, using a logical and mathematic model, whilst proving our conclusions from the Qur'an.

Let us begin by taking a close look at the relationship between the five pillars of Islam. Let us assume that the life of an average adult is 63 years and that his 13 years of youth are not taken into consideration after which all Islamic pillars become compulsory on him/her. Hence the value 50 will be used to determint the lifetime obligation value.

Table 1 below lists the pillars of Islam each with their respective lifetime obligation value. We have taken the Kalimah to represent Zikr.

The value for the Kalimah is not yet known. We hope to determine this later. Figure 1.1, below, is a graphical representation of the table above. The log graph shows the lifetime obligation values on the vertical Y axis against the five pillars respectively on the horizontal X axis.

Fig 1.1

As you can evidently see there is a trend in the graph which suggests a proportional increase in obligation moving from one pillar to the next. If we were to complete the graph, proportionally, to include the value for the Kalimah, we would have a graph similar to Fig 1.2.

Fig 1.2

The lifetime obligation value for the Kalimah, which we can deduce from the graph, is approximately TEN MILLION! This value is 100 times larger than the value for Salaat, which is roughly 100,000. The following Qur'anic ayah then makes perfect sense! Allah (swt) says in the Quran:

"The remembrance of Allah is the greatest"
(Surah 29: Verse 45)

We can now, therefore, conclude that the zikr of Allah is to be done over 100 times more often than we offer our prayers. Sound ridiculous? Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur'an:

"When you have offered your (Congregational) prayers, do the Zikr of Allah, standing, sitting & lying down on your sides"
Qur'an (Surah 4: Verse 103)

Since a person spends his entire life circulating between these three positions i.e standing, sitting & lying down, we can deduce that we have been requested to engage in the Zikr of Allah constantly in between our Salaats. So it is not surprising that the value for the Kalimah, which is a form of zikr, would far exceed that for Salaat.

This almost sounds like one is to be in continuous zikr throughout one's life doesn't it? Now why would Allah (swt) ask this from us? Surely this is something which is impossible & impracticable?

Not so!

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