Chapter IX: Zikr and Invocations
ZIKR AND INVOCATIONS
God says : Remember Me, I will remember you. He ordered His servants to pray and to invoke by this verse : Invoke me, I will respond to you. So the religious, sinners, near and distant ones should pray to God for fulfillment of their desires. He says : I am near. I respond to the invocation of one who invokes Me. So there is nothing better than God's Zikr and invocations to Him. This will be discussed in five sections.
SECTION 1
EXCELLENCE OF ZIKR
God says : Remember Me. I shall remember you. The sage Sabet Bonani said : I know when my Lord remembers me. The people asked him How do you know ? He said : He remembers me when I remember Him. God says: Rem,ember God too much.
He says : When you return from Arafat, remember God near Masharu'i Haram and remember Him as God has given you guidance. God says : When you finish the institutions of Haj, remember God more than you remember your parents at that time. God says : They are wise who remember God standing, sitting and lying on a side. God says : When you finish prayer, remember God standing, sitting, and lying on your sides. Hazrat Ibn Abbas said : Remember God day and night, on land and water, in jounery and habitation, in solvency and want, in health and disease, openly and secretly. God says rebuking the hypocrites : They remember God very little. God says :
Remember your Lord in your heart with humility and in fear silently morning and evening and be not of the heedless. God says : Zikr of God is the highest. Hazrat Ibn Abbas said : This is for two reasons. One reason is that God's remembrance of you is better than your remembrance of God. Another reason is that God's remembrance is better than all other divine services.
HADIS: This Prophet said : One engaged in the Zikr of God among the heedless is like a living tree in the midst of dry trees.
He said : One busy in Zikr in the midst of the heedless is like a warrior in the way of God in the midst of those soldiers who fled away. The Prophet said : God says : I remain with a servant till he remembers Me and moves his lips for Me. There is no action of
230 THE BOOK OF WORSHIP Vol-I