About the Dhikr
by Tongue and in Heart
bismi‘llah ir-rahman ir-rahim
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
My beloveds in spirit, be in your hearing the likeness of Muhammad, since you are from that handful of light which Allah took from the face of Muhammad and said, “Be.” So also see with the eye of Muhammad, and let Muhammad’s heart become your heart. Be like Muhammad in all your appearance and in whatever you do, and be prepared for whatever revelation will come down upon your heart, so that you are ever ready to receive this Muhammadan word, which is your origin, from the being of Muhammad. This is because God wants to transfer you after that, from the world of darkness in which you live now, to bring you back to the world of light, the world of your first father, Muhammad.
I will put upon you very heavy words, such that when they come upon you, this world will lose its meaning. You could not bear these words which I am sending to your heart while you live in the world of darkness. You need to remove these ungodly clothes, to put on God in everything, in order to hear what I have to say to you. And so I want you to be with me in the world in which I am living, in the true knowledge which has no beginning or end because it is for God, from God, in God. If you will be in this way with me, in what I am saying and in everything you do, then you will truly be the son of your father. When this comes true, the relationship of son to father will come true, and you will obey whatever order Muhammad has sent to do or not to do. For this, you must listen to the flutes of the presence of David, peace be upon him, which are, in their origin, from the flutes of Muhammad, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him. Listen to the presence of God as He is speaking to your manifestation. For this, God has said, “You who have believed, remember Allah often.”
Now I would like to explain the meaning of this dhikr. I mean by remembering God, not only remembrance with the tongue, but in all ways. As Sayyidina Muhammad, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him, has said, “Shall I tell you what the best of your doings is, and what is most pleasing to God, and better than silver and gold, and better than whatever you have imagined in your heart?” They said, “What is it, O Messenger of God?” He said, “The Day of Resurrection (Yawm-al-Qiyama) will never come as long as there is one who is remembering God.”
The outside appearance of these words is that the Yawm-al-Qiyama will never happen as long as people do adh-dhikr, but the deeper meaning is really that the rememberer will never end. As long as that person is remembering God and killing everything which is not God inside himself, then this is yawm-ad-din for him because in that moment he really dies in God. Another meaning of this speech is that as long as people are remembering God, there is good in the world, therefore God will keep this world. These are two dimensions of the meaning of these words of the Prophet, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him. When this world is filled with people who live in darkness, then God will send His last word, and everything will be destroyed. They destroy Him, so He destroys them. Because they disobeyed God, He took away this mercy. Allah doesn’t do bad, but He reflects upon people what they themselves project. Allah is carrying on His order. When He created this world in its outer appearance, it had a beginning. As the word kun which means be, the word has a beginning and an end. It begins with the letter kaf and ends with the letter nun. The letter kaf represents the body and nun, which can be found within kaf, represents the soul. But what is behind this word is another thing. When He puts His last word into manifestation, the person remembering God will continue always, never stopping. Even after their bodies go, their spirits are still going to God. “Know that the world of unification lies beyond sense; if you want unity, march in that direction.” (Rumi: Mathnavi). For example, if you bring a jar of honey, many see the jar of honey and say, “This is honey,” but the one who tastes the honey knows the real meaning of the honey.
When Allah gives the order to remove the last veil, this is yawm-ad-din. Then you will actually see Him as you see the moon in the sky. Behind the veils of goodness and badness lies the truth. From this comes the order from Allah to do adh-dhikr that these veils might be removed. So Allah has said in the Qur’an, “This day, We have taken off the veil, and today your vision is clear and you see everything.” And from this He has said, “Read your book, the book of you. It is enough that you should judge yourself.” It is important to do this today, not to wait until tomorrow, but to remove the veil now from every face, beginning with your own. And you cannot remove this veil unless you remember God a lot.
My beloved, understand that for the murid this remembering is the strong pillar in reaching Allah. This is the road. No one can reach God unless he continues to remember Allah. Also know that there are two kinds of remembering, the remembrance by the tongue of your mind and the remembrance of the heart. Through the tongue’s mentioning, your heart will begin to remember also. And when your heart remembers Allah, as your heart begins to live in your God, then your tongue will stop. When you are close to Him, you do not need to shout, as it would not be polite to call Him when you are standing in His presence. And this presence is the perfect presence for the human being. His heart and whatever he does is with God. For this, it was said, “The remembering of God is the banner, and whoever has been given this remembering in his heart has been given more holiness than a saint; and whenever this remembering leaves a person, he is banished.”
As all the blood flows to and from the heart, so the mentioning of Allah in the heart begins to spread throughout your body and all of your being. Then every action becomes an expression of the remembrance of God. The hand begins to remember as it touches, the eye as it sees, the ear as it hears, and all of your body begins to remember. So, starting from the tongue, it goes to the heart, and through the heart it spreads to all your body. Then the hand touches only what God wants, the eye sees only what God wants, the ear hears only what God wants, and the tongue begins to mention in a new way. How? By not speaking anything that will anger God. When you reach this point, you are a holy tree, the tree of remembrance, and from this tree, everything is now clean. When the mentioning of God comes to your heart, then this is the sword with which you can kill all your enemies, the sword of Allah. You can kill your shaitan, an-nafs, and ad-dunya.
From all this comes what the Prophet Muhammad has said, “If you pass by the gardens of those who remember God, sit down happily.” Also know that the perfect mentioning is the annihilation of one’s self in God. When your remembering is like this, Allah will transfer you to that which is the highest standard of adh-dhikr, which has no ending. That is a love which you never knew before, as God puts you from station to station, to the highest station. As Allah has said in the Qur’an, “As long as you thank, I will give more.”
Now since you have put God where He wants, in every word, in whatever you possess, all this is from Him and going back to Him. Actually everything that happened to you in this remembrance is because He wants you. This is His mercy to you, that you have now been truly the remembrance of the remembrance, and through you He remembers Himself. He has made you to sit on the carpet of His presence, and His angels are around you. As the Prophet, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him, said, “The people sitting remembering God will always have the angels around them, and the mercy will come upon them as a veil of mercy and quietness and purity, and God will remember them with the group of angels who are with Him.”
Know, my beloved and my dear, that every prayer and whatever you do has been given a special time, but the mentioning of God doesn’t have a special time. At all times you can remember God, while working, while walking, while sleeping, while eating – always. For this God has said, “Remember a lot. Remember while sitting, while standing, and on all your sides.” One person who was with the Prophet asked, “The orders God told us are many; tell us, what is the best to do?” The Prophet, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, answered, “Your tongue must be wet with God’s mentioning all the time.” So there is no way to God’s door, except by way of God’s remembrance. In this one must use all his time and all his energy, from the beginning to the end, in everything. Thus beloved, use all your breath only for the remembrance of God and beware of forgetfulness. As much as you are going in the name Allah, you are going in the self of God, when you look behind this picture. In this way, go into the self of God, into the light. But also this is a veil, so go behind this light to see more, until you go into the essence of the truth.
Through all this, always be in the remembrance, in all your stations, by the tongue when your heart is not yet mentioning God because in the beginning you might not yet be present. If you continue with the remembrance, you win this presence. Then Allah will open the garden of remembrance for you. As your heart becomes tranquil in the remembrance, it will be filled with light and it will come nearer to God. Then, by Him, you will not be aware of anything else that is in this world, until you are not aware of yourself, until your remembering is the remembered Him; then you are in Him. Now, the one who is seeking will be the sought, and the one reaching will be the reached. After you have been in the lowest station, you will be in the highest. And this is natural, not strange, that this powerful Beloved has put you through this.
The remembrance of the tongue is the station of al-’awam, the typical person who remembers but does not understand this remembering. But when the remembrance reaches his heart, this is the remembrance of al-khawas, the special people. The remembrance of al-khawas is the remembrance of the heart. This will become the remembrance of the spirit, the station of witnessing without limit, without end, and you witness God as if He is in front of you all the time. This is the remembrance of the perfected ones, (al-khawas al-khawas). Here you will be in the truth, sitting in the presence of the King.
At last, the truth of adh-dhikr reaches the point of stopping the mentioning of God, as you become immersed in the ocean of the presence and there is no speaking. You are witnessing God, and there is no need to call for Him. As when you travel, you need a vehicle to get there, but when you reach, you no longer need it. This does not mean that you throw away your vehicle; you keep it all the time. You remember in everything now, in your heart, your tongue, your hands, in everything. This is the unlimited witnessing. You hear Allah in everything, and in every voice. When you hear music, you hear the remembrance. You hear the dhikr in the voices of the animals, in every song of every bird, and in everything. This is the station of witnessing and of freedom (maqam us-shuhud al-mutlaq), and this is the real remembrance.
When a person reaches this station, this is the essence of the dhikr; like the fragrance of the rose, it is what is behind this fragrance. When you remember the name, this is like the rose. First you see the rose, then you smell her fragrance, and as you remember more, everything becomes fragrant with the remembrance. You begin to see with the eye of Laila and every picture is the picture of your beloved Allah, and everything is in its place. From the deep knowing, you begin to see with the eye of the witnessing (ash-shuhud) and she sees everything. When you remove your clothes to be Him in everything, and He gives you His eye to see everything in its place, this is the deep remembrance because the name goes from the world of the gross (al-kathif) to the world of the subtle (al-latif). You lose yourself, you lose your tongue, you lose your heart, you lose your soul, and you break the rock of your existence to find His essence inside everything, and there is only one – Allah. This is the unity of God (al-ahad). Everything becomes one in the deep essence of remembrance. This is like the ocean. When you look at the ocean it does not seem deep and sometimes it seems like it is not moving, but know that it moves all the time. Everything inside is changing; his body, heart, and soul change, and he becomes Him in everything. Then he does not need to remember with his tongue because everything stops.
The praying becomes remembering; the singing, everything you do becomes remembering. This is the essence of the remembrance. The Prophet Muhammad said, “An hour of remembering is better than the worship of seventy years.” This means that when you become silent and you begin to go through and behind everything, behind why or what, you see that your Beloved created everything. When you are silent and remember this for one hour, and you go through and behind, that one hour is better than seventy years of praying. When you love, you are silent. Now I can say, my beloved, be in your remembrance with your God, your King, in your sleep and awake, at night and during the day, and make your tongue and everything say, “I came to You in a hurry to please You, my God, so You will accept me.”
