Chapter IX: Zikr and Invocations
The Prophet said : If a party of men are engaged in the Zikr of God, the angels surround them, mercy encompasses them and He remembers them before His near angels. The Prophet said : If a party of men makes Zikr of God for pleasure of God a proclaimer proclaims from heaven : Your sins have been forgiven and you have been given virtues in lieu of your sins. The Prophet said : If a party of men make no Zikr of God sitting together and send no blessing on the Prophet, they will be repentant on the Resurrection Day. Prophet David said : O my Lord, when you see me joining the heedless after giving up the assembly of Zikr of God, break my feet under their feet, as it will be a gift cast upon me, The Prophet said : An assembly of virtue of the believers expiate two thousand assemblies of sin. Hazrat Abu Hurairah said : As you see the stars, so the inmates of heaven see a house of the inmates of the world wherein God is remembered.
Sufiyan-b-Aynah said : When a party of men gather together and remember God, the devil and the world become separate from them. The devil says to the world : Don't you see what they are doing"? The world says : Leave them as when they will be separate from one another, I will take them to you catching their necks. Hazrat Abu Huraiah said that he went one day into the market and said : I see you here, but the properties left by the Prophet are being distributed in the mosque. The People went to the mosque but saw no distribution of any property. They then went to Abu Hurairah and said : O Abu Hurairah, we find no distribution of property in the mosque. He asked : What then have you seen ? They said : We found a party of men making Zikr of God and reciting the Quran. He said : This is the heritage of the Prophet. The Prophet said : Some angels of God roam in the world and write down additional record of deeds. If they see a party of believers making Zikr of God, they proclaim : Come with your actions. They come with their actions and they take them towards the heaven. God says : What action of My servants have you seen ? They say : We saw them praising Three, glorifying Thee and declaring Thy purity. God says : Do they see Me? They say : No. God says : If they could have seen Me, how will it be?
They said : If they could have seen Thee they would have rectied
232 THE BOOK OF WORSHIP Vol-I