Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | SOULVEDA |
One of the commandments of the Quran is given in these words: “Believers, remember God with much remembrance.” (33:41). According to this Quranic verse, believers must remember God very much, every day and every moment. This is the greatest teaching of the Quran, and it is the highest form of worship. One who does this will be blessed with the greatest reward from God Almighty.
What is much remembrance of God? It is not in the sense of repetition of some word, but in the sense of thinking. Much remembrance or zikr-e-kathir is not a kind of lip service. It is rather a high kind of intellectual activity. Much remembrance is a sign of God realisation.
Remembering God much is a result of a chain reaction in the thinking process, that is, a series of thoughts in which each thought causes the next one. Zikr-e-kathir, or much remembrance, is a result of creative thinking. It is a product of a prepared mind. If you are a prepared mind, then your mind is bound to get triggered at every experience or observation. You will start discovering one item of God-realisation after another. In this way a chain reaction will be initiated in your mind.
It is this intellectual activity that is called in the Quran, zikr-e-kathir. For example, if it is raining, a believer will very soon present his shukr, that is acknowledgment to God. Then he will start thinking further, “what caused this downpour?” He will discover the natural processes that resulted in rain. He will then think that when the water was in the ocean, it was salty, but when it took the form of a downpour, it turned into freshwater. So step-by-step, he will discover how God created various processes which finally provided him water to drink. This is an example of chain reaction in thinking, and through this chain reaction you one-by-one start discovering items of realisation of God. If you are a prepared mind, then this process will continue without limit.
This chain reaction of zikr will enhance your marefat, that is, realisation. It will enhance your relationship with God. It will increase your wisdom and power of analysis. This will enhance your capacity to sort things out, and so on.
According to the Quran, believers are given a unique blessing, that is, they are able to add faith to their faith. (48:4). This is not a mysterious phenomenon, it is a direct result of the above kind of chain reaction. This chain reaction of zikr is very important for personality development. A believer increases his divine spirituality through this process.