In our everyday world we look out and we see things, and we relate to them, and we relate to them as outside of ourselves. So we have we, us, I, and what’s outside of ourselves. There’s not a unity between ourselves and everything around us; there’s a duality. Zikr is a word that means remembrance; it’s also pronounced “thikr” depending on the accent, and it consists of the repetition of certain phrases and/or Names of God, Names of Allah. The repetition of these names becomes a chant, or a prayer, and it’s supposed to accomplish certain things.
Now in Islam, you have Five-Times Prayer, and prayer is supposed to be with a certain intention and accomplish something. The intention should be to separate yourself from the world for the time that you’re doing your prayer, and become more unified with existence so that separation between you and the rest of creation should disappear. And the separation between you and God should disappear.
Now for most people, prayer in the formal fashion is an obligation, and they treat it like an obligation. And the time comes to do it, and they do it, and their obligation is done. Prayer needs to be more than that, and zikr, the remembrance, needs to be more than that.
The whole world talks about meditation. And let’s try and put a focus on what Sufi meditation would be like, and how to do a Sufi meditation. Now we all know, or at least we’ve been told a lot, that Sufism is about finding reality through learning the qualities of Allah, and reality is within the qualities of Allah. Everything else is illusory or illusion; it’s not real, it’s not eternal. The only thing that is eternal is God and God’s qualities.
Now Sufistic meditation is an attempt to enter into that reality and to end the duality of our existence. So how do you do that? Well, pick a Name of God, like Rahman, and then sit still. And as you’re sitting still, relieve yourself of all of your attachments to the illusory world. Relieve yourself of your anxiety, relieve yourself of your fear, relieve yourself of your attachments, and relieve yourself of your needs and desires.
Feel complete within yourself to the point where you are without desire and without need. There is no need to defend yourself, there is no need to talk, and there is no need to be involved with the world. Then focus on this word Rahman and understand that Rahman is a Name of God. Rahman is somehow intermingled with God. The resonance of Rahman is intermingled with Allah. And then close your eyes and repeat, “Ya Rahman, Ya Rahman, Ya Rahman,” but not out loud, silently; “Ya Rahman, Ya Rahman, Ya Rahman.”
Now what this does, if you can do all these things, is it detaches you from illusion, it detaches you from the world, and it focuses you on a resonance that is God’s name, on a resonance that is without form and attached to Allah. So when you do this, do this without preconception. Do it without imagining where you’re going or how you’re going. Do it with just the intention that you are dropping your connection to the world, and you are waiting to see what Allah has to show you.
To put yourself in that space for a period of time every day will cleanse your being. All of the attachments that you have in this world become part of you…
