The Excellence of Remebrance

Allah has said:

 

"Therefore remember Me, I will remember you and be grateful to Me, and reject not faith." (Al-Baqarah: 152)

He also said:

"O you who believe! Remember Allah with much remembrance." (Al-Ahzaab: 41)

And at another place in Quran Allah tells us how His remembrance will be rewarded:

"And for men and women who engage much in Allah's remembrance, for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward." (Al-Ahzaab: 35)

Yet at another place Allah tells us how and when we should remember Him:

"And bring your Lord to remembrance in your (very) soul, with humility and remembrance without loudness in words, in the mornings and evenings, and be not of those who are unheedful." (Al-A'raaf: 205)

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "The comparison of one who remembers Allah and the one who does not remember Allah, is like that of the living and the dead." (Al-Bukhaaree with Al-Fath: 11/208) "The comparison of the house in which Allah is mentioned and the house in which Allah is not mentioned, is like that of the living and the dead." (Muslim: 1/539)

He (peace be upon him) also said: "Should I not inform you of the best of deeds, and the most sanctifying of deeds before your Lord, which does more to raise your positions (with Him), and are better for you than the disbursement of gold and money, or battle with the enemy?" They (the companions) said: "Indeed! Inform us." He (peace be upon him) then said: "Remembrance of Allah." (At-Tirmidhee 5/459 and Ibn Maajah 2/1245, see: Saheeh Ibn Maajah 2/316 and Saheeh At-Tirmidhee 3/139) 

The Prophet (peace be upon him) also said: "Allah says: 'Indeed I am as My servant presumes Me to be, and I am with him when he remembers Me, so if he remembers Me to himself I remember him to Myself, and if he remembers Me amongst a company I remember him amongst a company greater than it, and if he draws near to Me the span of a hand I draw near to him the span of an arm, and if draws near to Me the span of an arm I draw near to him the span of two outstretched arms, and if he takes a step towards Me I hastily step towards him." (Al-Bukhaaree 5/175 and Muslim 4/2061, this specific wording is related by Al-Bhukaaree)

On authority of Abdullah Ibn Busr: A man said to Prophet (peace b upon him) "O Messenger of Allah, The rites of Islam are much for me, so tell me something that I might hold fast to." He (peace be upon him) said: "Let not your tongue cease from the remembrance of Allah." (At-Tirmidhee 5/458 and Ibn Maajah 2/1246, see: Saheeh Ibn Maajah 2/317 and Saheeh At-Tirmidhee 3/139) 

The Prophet (peace b upon him) also said: "Whoever recites a letter of Allah's Book has for it, a merit and ten more like it, not to say that alif, laam, meem are on letter but rather alif is a letter, laam is a letter and meem is a letter." (At-Tirmidhee 5/175, see: Saheeh At-Tirmidhee 3/9 and Saheeh Al-Jaami' As-Sagheer 5/340) 

He (peace b upon him) also said: "Are there any of you who would wish to go every say to the Buthaan or Al-'Aqeeq (i.e. the name of the two ditches in Madeenah) in re early morning and return from it with two she-camels without incurring any sin or severing relations?' We (the companions) said: "We would indeed love that, O Messenger of Allah (peace be on you)." He (peace b upon him) said: "then you should go to the mosque and acquire some knowledge, or recite two verses from the book of Allah, that would be better for you than two she-camels, and three verses are better than three she-camels, and four verses are better than four she-camels, and the same for a like number of male camels." (Muslim 1/553)

The Prophet (peace b upon him) also said: "Whoever takes a seat and fails to remember Allah, has incurred upon himself a loss from Allah, and whoever lies down (relaxes) and fails to remember Allah, has incurred upon himself a loss from Allah." (Adu Daawud 4/264 and others, see: Saheeh Al-Jaami' 5/342).

He (peace b upon him) also said: "Whenever people sit in a gathering in which they fail to remember Allah and send prayers upon the Prophet they incur a loss upon themselves and if Allah willed He would punish them and if He willed He would forgive them." (At-Tirmidhee, see: Saheeh At-Tirmidhee 3/140)

Similarly, he (peace b upon him) said: "Whenever people rise from a gathering in which they failed to remember Allah, they rise as if they had arisen from the corpse of an ass and incurring upon themselves grief." (Abu Daawud 4/264 and Ahmad 2/389, see Saheeh Al-Jaami' 5/176)

May Allah make us from His chosen and the guided people and strengthen the roots of our iman! May we be blessed to remember the Lord of the Worlds in every doing of our lives.

Ameen Thumameen آمين ثم آمين 

99 Names of Allah

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: There are ninety-nine names of Allah; he who commits them to memory would get into Paradise. Verily, Allah is Odd (He is one, and it is an odd number) and He loves odd number. And in the narration of Ibn 'Umar (the words are):" He who enumerated them."

Source: Sahih Muslim, Book 35: "Chapter 1 - Exhortation for the Remembrance of Allah, The Exalted" 

Another Hadith on Remembrance of Allah

Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) related that Allah ordered Yahyaa Ibn Zakariyyah (may peace be upon him) with five commandments; to act upon them and convey them to the Children of Israel ... (the fifth one being): " ... and I order you to make mention of Allah often, as this is like a man being pursued at speed by the enemy until he reaches a protected fortress and so protects himself inside it, likewise is the servant, he can only protect himself from the shaytaan through the remembrance of Allah, the Mighty and the Majestic." 

Source: Shaheeh Al-Jaami # 1724 

Hadith on Remembrance of Allah

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying that Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, thus stated: I am near to the thought of My servant as he thinks about Me, and I am with him as he remembers Me. And if he remembers Me in his heart, I also remember him in My Heart, and if he remembers Me in assembly I remember him in assembly, better than his (remembrance), and if he draws near Me by the span of a palm, I draw near him by the cubit, and if he draws near Me by the cubit I draw near him by the space (covered by) two hands. And if he walks towards Me, I rush towards him.

Source: Sahih Muslim, Book 35: "Chapter 1 - Exhortation for the Remembrance of Allah, The Exalted"

Meaning and Importance of Supplication

Supplication is in fact not only the spontaneous outpourings of man's heart before his Lord, but it is an expression of his sense of nearness to Him, of His Might and Power, of his confidence in His mercy, grace and blessings. If one were to know how much a man supplicates, and what he supplicates about, and how he supplicates, one would be able to see how much spirituality is there in his soul. When a man without any witness speaks with Allah, the soul stands unveiled before its Creator. The higher the note he strikes in his outpouring, the higher is the quality of the faith that is imprinted upon his soul, and serves as a background to all his thought and activity. Thus to understand the spirit of any religion and appraise its value to life and society, supplications serve as the key. The Prophet (may peace be upon him) was a great believer in supplication and prayer. He made supplications to his Lord with zeal and fervor, rarely to be found in the religious literature of the world. One who cares to read them cannot but be overwhelmed with the depth of feelings with which the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) approaches his Lord, his intense love for the Great Master, his deep faith in His unbounded Favors, his unshakable confidence in His Divine Mercy and unflinching faith in His Might and Power, and his sense of deep humility before Him. These are in fact the multi-colored threads with which is woven the delicate pattern of the Prophet's (may peace be upon him) supplications. In Islam the supplication which a Muslim has been instructed to make whether singly or in congregation, whether at the appointed hour of ritual prayer or at any sudden call or urge to His Lord, reflects the one single attitude of submission, humility and closeness to God. Whatever is the state of spiritual elevation of the supplication he is made to keep this fact constantly in his mind that he is a humble servant of the Lord. That is the reason why most of the supplications in Islam open with an invocation of the Divine Being; either the personal name of God, i. e. Allah, is used or the descriptive title of His Attributes are called out in order to make the worshiper conscious of his own weak and dependent self before his Master. In Islam man seeks the help of God to help and grant him what he desires, and at the same time he seeks unconsciously to work upon himself through the realization of what God means to him, to strengthen, to renew and to refresh his own inner life.

While the expression of dependence and trust is in reality a prerequisite of supplication in Islam, it covers the whole range of human life with all its needs, longings and problems. Supplication finds expression in a deep and urgent longing for self preservation and deliverance from the oppressive situation, forgiveness of sins, elevation of the soul, goodness of the worldly life and that of the Hereafter. This consciousness of one's absolute dependence upon Him, which pervades the entire stock of the Prophet's (may peace be upon him) supplications, shows man's attitude of perfect resignation before the Mighty Will of the Master, but this resignation has nothing of the spirit of despondence and despair in it; it rather illuminates hope out of conviction that the Being Who is the Lord of man's fate can also help him and save him even in the most trying circumstances.

The supplications of Muhammad (may peace be upon him) eminently combine in themselves the mystical and the religious traits. While the Muslim supplicates, he, like a mystic, beholds undisturbed with concentrated gaze one Supreme Spiritual Reality Who is the Embodiment and Repository of all values. But, unlike mystics, he, in the hour of contemplation in supplication, does not lose himself but realises himself to be a humble servant of God and therein lies his spiritual strength and unwavering confidence in God. 

The one more distinguishing feature of the supplications taught by Muhammad (may peace be upon him) is that these are all permeated with the spirit of social fellowship. They do not urge man to stand face to face with God in absolute loneliness, isolated from all other human beings. Herein the suppliant begs his Lord with the full consciousness of human brotherhood and with a feeling that the distress which vexes him is not his only, it is that of his brethren. The graces of God and the salvation for which he longs are also the longings of all believers, nay, of the entire humanity. There is no doubt a deep touch of intimate personal and individual contact with God in these supplications, but this contact is not of the nature of a non-Muslim mystic in which the soul is supposed to be unified with God losing all its individual identity. Here the soul has a communion with Allah with full consciousness of man's own self, his social surroundings and responsibilities. That is why most of the supplications have been expressed in the form" We" and Us". 

Source: As mentioned on the website of USC's Center For Muslim-Jewish Engagement: Resources,  Translation of Sahih Muslim, Book 35: "The Book Pertaining to the Remembrance of Allah, Supplication, Repentance and Seeking Forgiveness (Kitab Al-Dhikr)"