DHIKR AND GENERAL REMEMBRANCE OF ALLAH TA’ALA
We learnt earlier that every moment of the month of Ramadan is priceless and it’s even possible that one second is more valuable than all of the seconds out of Ramadan.
For this reason, we have to always engage ourselves in some sort of beneficial activity for the sake of Allah Ta’ala, whether it’s physical worship, such as Salah or verbal worship, such as recitation.
One great way to make the most of Ramadan is remembering Allah Ta’ala through the Dhikr we have been taught in the Noble Qur’an and the Hadith.
Dhikr literally means “remembering Allah Ta’ala” and it can be through many ways, whether it’s making Du’a, praying certain phrases of Dhikr or even thinking and talking about Him. The key is to bring Him to the front of your mind as much as possible. Not only will this be rewarding, but it will distract yourself from thoughts of committing sins. It will create a bond between you and Allah Ta’ala.
There are many ways to remember Allah throughout your day:
• You can recite the phrase we learnt earlier:
There is no God besides Allah. I seek Allah’s forgiveness. O’ Allah, I ask you for Jannah and I ask for your protection from the Fire.
• We can also pray the First Kalimah frequently
There is no God besides Allah.
•We can also pray the Third Kalimah Frequently
Pure is Allah, and all praise belongs to Him. There is no God besides Allah. Allah is the greatest. There is no power and no strength but with Allah, the High, the Great.
•We can do Istigfar and ask for forgiveness using the simple phrase “Astagfiru’Llah”, or the more comprehensive phrase:
I seek the forgiveness of Allah, my Lord, for every sin and I turn in repentance to Him.
For the last three phrases (the First Kalimah, the Third Kalimahand Istigfar) we should set for ourselves daily targets, whether it’s reciting each one ten, twenty, fifty or preferably one hundred times daily.
A target of one hundred would be ideal to begin with. Though the Third Kalimahmay take longer, the other two will not take more than five minutes each. However, the effect and reward of reciting these will be huge.
Scholars also recommend to us to remember the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم throughout this month by praying Salawat upon Him. There are countless benefits of reciting Salawatupon Him, with one important one being that Allah Ta’ala will be pleased with us. We also owe it to the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم for being the means of guiding us. In fact, more or less everything in this presentation we have learnt so far has been from his teachings! This is why we should thank him by sending Salawat upon him daily.
There are many phrases you can choose, such as the simple:
May Allah send blessings and peace upon him
Another short one is the one below. It’s more rewarding to use this phrase as it was one of the phrases instructed to us by the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم to use :
May Allah send blessings upon the unlettered prophet
However, we can derive from the Hadiths that the best phrase for Salawat we can recite, is the SalawatIbrahim, the one we recite in Salah afterTashahhud. Though it’s lengthy, we should recite it once in a while at least.
We should aim to recite Salawat three hundred times a day. It would take less than five minutes in total if we use the above short phrases!
One highly effective way to constantly remember Allah Ta’ala—and in a way that would be relevant to our lives too—is praying the Sunnah Duas we have been taught by His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم. There is more or less a Du’a for every occasion. We may have learnt many of them from beforein Madrasah, but there are many books available with Duas for their different occasions. Consult your local Imam or scholar for recommendations on which books you could use.
However, the following Du’as will be the ones we use most frequently throughout our days, and we should make a point of reciting them with their meanings in mind. We can even print them out and stick them at their relevant points to remind us!
BY HUDA PRESS
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