Dhikr Allah - A Discussion

[Flame of Hope]

It is said that Dhikr Allah has great importance in Islam. It is said to be even better than jihad or fighting in the battlefield against the enemy. I'm curious to know how many brothers and sisters here engage in Dhikr Allah. Please share what words of remembrance you use. If you can provide the Arabic transliteration that would be great.

Questions to discuss:

1. How frequently do you engage in Dhikr Allah?

2. Are you consistent with it or do you face difficulties being consistent?

3. What are the words of remembrance you use?

4. Which words of Dhikr fetch great rewards? Please share your knowledge!

5. Do you agree with the statement that Dhikr Allah is the hardest thing to do? If yes, why?

 

[tigerkhan]

It is said that Dhikr Allah has great importance in Islam

obviously

It is said to be even better than jihad or fighting in the battlefield against the enemy.

that depend on time basis, eg if we have enemies of our head, then Jihad has preference over all good deeds. also dhikar is term used in very vast context, eg ALLAH SWT also said quran as dkhikar and salat as dhikar.

How frequently do you engage in Dhikr Allah?

not a continues routine.

Are you consistent with it or do you face difficulties being consistent?

no, no consistency

What are the words of remembrance you use

astigfar, third kalma, ,drood

Do you agree with the statement that Dhikr Allah is the hardest thing to do? If yes, why

honestly yes, at least for me its most difficult thing among other good deeds. most probably bcz of some accident in my past that made me much weak spiritually. i know b4 that time i can easily do much..

 

[Flame of Hope]

i know b4 that time i can easily do much..

So there was a time when you engaged in much Dhikr? What caused you to stop? I hope you don't mind me asking.

Also, what is this third kalma and drood?

 

[tigerkhan]

^ yes. u blv i stay in masjid from asar upto mugrib daily. i make recitation of quran and dhilar in that time...some time doing istaghfar u may cry. drood mean salvat, salat for prophet PBUh and 3rd kalma is Subhanallh, alhumdulliah, allhoakbar, praise of Allah SWt.

 

[Ali Mujahidin]

1. All the time, every day.
2. Used to have difficulty but not anymore.
3. Kalimah Tayyibah.
4. Kalimah Tayyibah.
5. Yes and no. Hard at the beginning but gets easier and easier as you do more and more of it until it is as natural as breathing. One day you will reach the point that your heart beats with the rhythm of dhikr. Like in the dua I learned a long time ago which translates roughly as "May each beat that your heart makes and each breathe that you take be in the remembrance of Allah (just as each beat that your heart makes and each breathe that you take is known by Allah)". Insha Allah.

 

[Flame of Hope]

3. Kalimah Tayyibah.
4. Kalimah Tayyibah.

What is that?

 

[Ramadhan]

It is said that Dhikr Allah has great importance in Islam.

Remembrance of Allah is extremely important for many reasons, one of them is to remind us of our status (that we are merely a lowly creature), another is as a shield and barrier from evil doing (that we may do if we didnt remember Allah).

1. How frequently do you engage in Dhikr Allah?

an absolute minimum of 5 + 1 times a day (5 times after shalah, and before sleeping)
There are many ahadeeth that extolled the great rewards and blessings of dhikr after every shalah fard. One of those is when Fatimah (r.a.) the daughter of prophet SAW felt extremely tired from doing all kinds of domestic work and she asked her father to give her a domestic help, and Rasulullah replied, "I will give you something which is much greater than any domestic help? Recite Subhanallah (Exalted is Allah/Glory be to Allah, the Most Pure) 33x, Alhamdulillah (praise and thanks be to Allah), Allahu Akbar 33x (allah is the greatest) after each shalah and before retiring to bed.

2. Are you consistent with it or do you face difficulties being consistent?

In Islam, we are prescribed to say du'a (with a minimum of bismillahirrohmanirrohim) before we do everything because everything we do in this world should be done for the sake of Allah SWT, and yes, even before we enter toilet to do our business, so alhamdulillah these days I dont find difficulty consistency in terms of not doing dhikrullah at all. But in some days I do dhikrullah a lot more than in other days. You can always do dhikrullah any time and anywhere. Even when you sit in a public transport waiting to arrive at your destination, you can always whisper all those simple dhikr (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Kalimas)

3. What are the words of remembrance you use?

The easiest and the most frequent I utter is Subhāna-llāhi, wa-l-hamdu li-llāhi, wa lā ilāha illā-llāhu, wa-llāhu akbar. Wa lā hawla wa lā quwwata illā bi-llāhi-l-ʿaliyyi-l-ʿazīm (Glory be to Allah and Praise to Allah, and there is none worthy of worship but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest. And there is no might or power except with Allah, the Exalted, the Great One.)

But there are many others. We are also encouraged to send salam and shalawat to the prophet Muhammad SAW and his family as much and as frequent as we can. The prophet SAW said that the most stingy person is those that do not send salam and shalawat to him.
The longer version is the one that we read when we are doing the last sitting (tahiyyat akhir) during our shalat:
Allahumma salli ‘ala sayyidina Muhammadin O Allah please shower your blessings upon our Master Muhammad
wa ‘ala ali Muhammadin and upon the family of Muhammad
kama sallayta ‘ala Ibrahim as you have showered your blessings upon Abraham
wa ‘ala ali Ibrahim and the family of Abraham,
innaka hamidun majid indeed You are Most Praiseworthy and Glorious
Wa barik ‘ala sayyidina Muhammadin O Allah shower Your grace upon our master Muhammad
wa ‘ala ali Muhammadin and upon the family of Muhammad
kama barakta ‘ala Ibrahim as you have showered Your grace upon Abraham
wa ‘ala ali Ibrahim and the family of Abraham,
innaka hamidun majid indeed You are Most Praiseworthy and Glorious.

But during other times whenever I remember, I would send salam and salawat like this:
Allahumma salli ‘ala sayyidina Muhammadin O Allah shower blessings and peace upon our master Muhammad
wa ‘ala ali Muhammadan wa sahbihi wa sallim and upon the family of Muhammad and his companions

4. Which words of Dhikr fetch great rewards? Please share your knowledge!

You may want to read this past thread http://www.islamicboard.com/manners...easy-dhikr-light-tongue-but-heavy-scales.html

5. Do you agree with the statement that Dhikr Allah is the hardest thing to do? If yes, why?

I agree and disagree. It depends on our eeman. Dhikr Allah is the most natural and easiest thing you can do.
The more you do dhikr Allah the easiest and the sweeter you experience it.

 

[Flame of Hope]

Remembrance of Allah is extremely important for many reasons, one of them is to remind us of our status (that we are merely a lowly creature), another is as a shield and barrier from evil doing (that we may do if we didnt remember Allah).

Jazakallah khair brother for this invaluable information. There was much that I didn't know. Thank you for sharing your personal experience. I had been wondering how many people actually engage in dhikr. So it's nice to know that it can be done, hearing from someone who is actually doing it.

I used to wonder what could be the reasons why so much importance was place on Dhikr. Now I know.

I checked out the link on dhikr. It's awesome. Jazakallah khair again.

 

[Ali Mujahidin]

Kalimah Tayyibah = La ilaha ila LLah
(I may have transliterated this wrongly because I am using an English translation of a dissertation on dhikr originally written in Urdu. Any brothers or sisters who are more knowledgeable should be able to tell us better.)

There is no greater announcement than this. This is the single most important message that Allah wants each and everyone of us to tell every and any person we meet. It means that all else is insignificant in comparision to Allah. Logical thinking and rational reasoning are just mind games. At the bottom of it all, there must be total realization that it is Allah and only Allah that makes the first and the last decision. The ability to think is itself a blessing from Allah. To assume that just because we are able to think, we are able to reason out the truth about Allah is a delusion. It would be kind of like the fish that thought it knew all about the fisherman just by applying logical thinking and rational reasoning to analyse the bait dangling in the water.

Alternatively, as a very rough analogy, consider the ubiquitous mobile phone. Just because we own the very latest model with all the very latest slick gadgets and all the very latest cutting-edge gizmos does not mean that we have in our hand the ultimate communications device. It is the service provider, the base station, that calls the shots. Do we think our mobile phone is of any use if it is not connected to the network? Likewise, do we think that we, as sentient beings with such a highly developed level of intelligence, would be of any use if we refuse to connect to Allah, the one and only source of intelligence?

Hope that is useful. Insha Allah.