Being Present with God

Editorial Board

November 9, 2012

The quintessence of the Islamic spiritual training is the purification of the soul by dhikr (presence with and remembrance of God). God, Almighty is He, said: “Is it not thanks to the remembrance of God that hearts do find satisfaction and quietude?” (Qur’an, 13:28). Uttering constantly the statement la ilāha illa Allāh [there is no god but God] must be a firmly entrenched habit, a way of life.
The word “to remember” is too pale a word for dhikr, which has now acquired a large number of associations in our Islamic literature. In its verbal signification it implies: to remember, to celebrate, and praise by frequently mentioning.
For us the remembrance of God is not confined to repeating la ilāha illa Allāh. It must be taken as an individual and collective behavior in all fields, namely where the positive law has supplanted the divine law. That is how the sovereignty of God is to be expressed on the ground.