Al-Ankabut \r\n (The Spider) \r\n Chapter 29: Verse 45 (partial) \r\n The Significance of Dhikr \r\n \"And \r\n the remembrance of Allah is the greatest deed without doubt.\" \r\n The significance of dhikr lies in the fact that it is God's \r\n own chosen and recommended mode by which the muminun or Believers \r\n show gratitude for having been shown the straight path. In addition, it \r\n is indeed the surest way of attaining God's \r\n forgiveness and achieving the ultimate reward of Paradise. \r\n The importance of dhikr then is not difficult to understand. \r\n It is dhikr that purifies your \r\n qalb or heart and makes it sound. And you can \r\n only attain salvation and true success by having a pure and sound heart. \r\n The qalb or `heart' referred to here is not the pump in your \r\n breast that pushes blood around your body but rather the centre or locus \r\n of your personality which pumps out your desires and motivations and which \r\n makes you conduct yourself as you do. It is this qalb that lies \r\n at your centre and dictates your actions which is the key to your ultimate \r\n success. \r\n If the heart is the key to ultimate salvation and success, it may, likewise, \r\n be the seat of much corruption and open doors to many evils. It may facilitate \r\n the corruption of political and economic activities and ultimately the \r\n social institutions of a society. \r\n It is the heart, as the decider of our ultimate fate, that must then \r\n be the starting point of any tazkiya programme, to purify this \r\n heart and then summon it to the service of mankind. \r\n Ibn al-Qayyim, one of the great scholars of Islam, states in his Kitab \r\n al Adhkar (The Book of Remembrance), that 'the \r\n heart which is devoid of the remembrance of Allah is a heart that is dead'; \r\n it is dead even and long before the body carrying the heart reaches its \r\n grave. Indeed, this living body that carries the heart is the heart's \r\n grave. \r\n The purpose of tazkiya is to ensure that the heart never falls \r\n into a sorry state of being and that it is always alive with the remembrance \r\n of God. \r\n Strive then, to fill all your moments, all your thoughts and all your \r\n actions with His remembrance. Recite tasbih or words of glorification \r\n and praise to punctuate all your actions and achievements. \r\n Source: \r\n \"In The Early Hours\" - Khurram Murad \r\n |