At the ends of the these meetings we usually do a short zikr, sometimes pronounced zikr, sometimes pronounced dhikr (thikr) depending on how you pronounce it. People have asked me “What’s the point of doing this? Why do people do dhikr? Why do people do zikr? Why is it one of the main performance rituals of the Sufis?” The answer is that the zikr contains the names of Allah, and we repeat these names over and over and over. The various names like rahman, rahim, shakur have meanings like mercy, and compassion and gratitude.
The point is that we repeat these names in order to bring about a remembrance, in our being, of what we once knew, which was mercy, compassion and gratitude. It’s to reinvigorate that which we once knew, because it wore off and we have to somehow bring it back. Rahman, rahim, shakur are all natural to us, but we somehow have to make them natural again after we had the input of the world upon ourselves since we were children.
The world in its illusory manifestations attacked us. We succumb to the attacks. Every time we were attacked by one of the worldly qualities, it weakened, within our being, the recognition of the godly qualities. So, we have to reinvigorate the Godly qualities.
There’s a number of ways to do this. One way is to recite the zikr and to say these godly qualities over and over and over. It’s important that you make a connection with these names. For instance, if you say rahman, rahman, rahman, rahman and it has no meaning for you, it’s from a foreign language, it doesn’t connect to you, it makes no sense to you, it might be wiser to say mercy mercy mercy mercy or whatever your native language is, to be able to say it within that native language. The point is to make a connection with these qualities.
We can do zikr for hours and hours and hours but there’s also our interrelationship with the world. The way the real connection is made, and maybe even quicker than zikr is by having gratitude. By having gratitude you are connecting to Allah through your action and through your being. As you have gratitude and as the gratitude comes forth from you, that gratitude is quickly replaced by more gratitude because you’ve attached to the source of gratitude. By having compassion, as that compassion flows through you, it’s replaced with more compassion because it is attached to the cornucopia of compassion. We have to begin to think of the qualities as a sort of commodity.
Instead of having a bank account of money, we need a bank account of qualities. This is an interesting bank account, because the interest on this bank account is many times what you give out. If you have money in the bank, and you gave the money way to be nothing left. But, if you have a bank account of the qualities of Allah, as you give them away the, account is refilled more. The more you give away the more its refilled. So, the way to get more compassion is to give more compassion away. The way to get more mercy is to give more mercy away. The way to get more gratitude is to be more and more grateful. And so, your account keeps growing and growing and growing. You are a dispenser of Allah’s will. So, you get the tools necessary to dispense His will. It takes a kind of turnaround in the way we think.
Everybody wants to be loved, but can we give love the way easily? Do we have the ability to love? We know that as we love, Allah will give us the capacity to have more love, and to be lovelier…
