Remembrance of God (dhikr)

Ibn Rajab discusses dhikr (remembrance of God) in the fiftieth hadith, which closes his additions to the Forty, as the comprehensive principle to hold on to when the laws have multiplied. ¹

The text of the hadith is: "Let your tongue remain moist with the remembrance of God." In the hadith of Mu'adh: "that you die while your tongue is moist with the remembrance of God." ¹

Ibn Rajab says that many of the virtues of remembrance were mentioned earlier, scattered through the book, and that here he mentions the excellence of persisting in it and doing it often. He cites the verses that command much remembrance and that praise the men and women who remember, with forgiveness and a great reward. ¹

He holds that remembrance is the easiest and most honourable of deeds, and the nearest to God, since it needs no place, no ablution, and no turning toward the qibla. ¹

The Sheikh says remembrance covers every act done for God's sake, from the needle-maker's needle to the astronaut's flight, and lists its kinds: of the tongue, eye, ear, heart and limbs (his view). ^{2 3 4} He holds that counting glorification on the fingers is better than the rosary, and ties the heart to the fingers (his view). ^{5 6} He mentions that whoever turns away from God's remembrance has a straitened life (needs_source). ⁷ He claims that a believer who performs ablution and recites a particular chapter sincerely in distress is relieved, a claim that could not be checked (needs_source). ⁸

The Sheikh asks what could equal praying isha in congregation and hearing the verses of remembrance in the reciter's moving voice, and says that this softens hearts ⁹. He reminds his listeners that the peace of hearts comes through the remembrance of God ⁹.

The Sheikh reports from scholars that the people of paradise will regret nothing except an hour they spent without remembering God (needs_source) ¹⁰. He also mentions a report that the gardens of paradise are the circles of knowledge, and asks the one who feels his chest opened in such a circle why he would want to leave (needs_source) ¹⁰.

The Sheikh says that our prayers and our asking for forgiveness themselves need forgiveness, and our worship needs correcting ¹¹. He then relates a hadith of the angels who intercede with their Lord for the people of a gathering of remembrance: they say they left servants who remember, affirm and glorify Him; God asks what they ask for, they answer that they ask for His paradise, and He asks whether they have seen it (needs_source) ¹¹.

The hadith continues: God declares that He has forgiven the people of the gathering, gave them what they hope for and made them safe from what they fear; an angel says that so-and-so is not one of them and only came for a need of his own, and God replies that they are the people by whom no companion is left unhappy (needs_source) ¹².

The Sheikh prays that God gather those present in the shade of His throne on the day when there is no shade but His ¹³. He then says that a day will come for the people of paradise on which each will ask his brothers when God forgave them, and he reports from scholars that this question has an answer (needs_source) ¹³.