SPIRIT OF ISLAM AUGUST 2O13

37 Spirit of Islam Issue 8 August 2013 THE REMEMBRANCE OF GOD T HE Quran exhorts believers to remember God often (THE QURAN 33: 41 ). Some people understand the command dhikr to mean the frequent repetition of the name(s) of God; to keep repeating even just the word ‘God’ or ‘Allah’ thousands of times while counting them on a tasbih or rosary beads. In reality however, this has no connection with the actual Quranic command. In the Quran, dhikr , does not mean merely the repetition of words. It means to think about God often. Another verse of the Quran says: So remember Me; I will remember you. THE QURAN 2: 152 In this verse, God promises to remember us if we remember Him. Remembrance does not mean the repetition of words. God is certainly not going to repeat our names over and over. Remembrance of God is not a repetition of words, but a spontaneous discovery of the glory of God. Similarly, there is a Hadith of the Prophet that tells us to remember death often. Again, in this Hadith , remembrance does not mean a repetition of the word death. Obviously, in this Hadith , remembering death means to think about death. Abu Musa, a companion of the Prophet had a beautiful voice. Whenever he recited the Quran, people would become engrossed listening to the recitation. Once, when the Prophet heard Abu Musa reciting the Quran, he said, 'Abu Musa has been given the enthralling voice of the family of Da’ud (David).' It is said that whenever Omar met Abu Musa, he would say, “O Abu Musa, make us remember our Lord." In this saying of Omar also, remembrance does not mean the repetition of words. Omar did not wish to be seated beside Abu Musa listening to him saying the word God over and over. Here also the meaning of the word remembrance was to ‘think about’. What Omar wished was for Abu Musa to recite some verses of the Quran that would make him think about God.