Dhikr is the repeated invocation of God's names and phrases — Subḥān Allāh, Alḥamdu lillāh, Allāhu akbar — counted on beads until remembrance becomes a state.
Tagged: Meditation Prayer Remembrance
How It Is Practiced
The worshipper repeats the phrases of glorification, praise, and magnification, traditionally in sets of thirty-three after each prayer, counting on the fingers or on a strand of beads (tasbīḥ, misbaḥa). Beyond the fixed sets, dhikr extends to the ninety-nine names of God, to blessings on the Prophet, and in Sufi practice to rhythmic communal sessions — sometimes with music, movement, or controlled breath — led by a shaykh, aimed at polishing the heart until remembrance displaces heedlessness entirely.
Purpose and Meaning
The Qur'an's promise is direct: 'Verily, in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest.' Dhikr is devotion reduced to a single movement of attention, repeated: the Name said until the sayer is recollected. Its theologians call forgetfulness the root disease of the soul; dhikr is the medicine dosed continuously, in the car and the kitchen as much as in the mosque.
References
- Dhikr — Wikipedia Free / open access
Related Practices
- The Jesus Prayer — The Jesus Prayer repeats one sentence — 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner' — until it becomes continual.
- Japa — Repetition of the Name — Japa is the murmured or mental repetition of a mantra or a name of God, counted on a mālā of 108 beads, until the Name fills the mind.
- Ṣalāh — The Five Daily Prayers — Five times a day, at hours set by the sun, Muslims stop and pray: the standing, bowing, and prostration that structure the Islamic day.
Related Across the Site
- Japa — Repetition of the Name Devotion — Japa is the murmured or mental repetition of a mantra or a name of God, counted on a mālā of 108 beads, until the Name fills the mind.
- Nām Simran — Meditation on the Name Devotion — The repetition of the divine Name — Vāhigurū — in meditation and through the day: the central interior practice of the Sikh path.
- Recitation of the Ṇamokāra Mantra Devotion — Jainism's supreme prayer bows to no god: it salutes the five supreme ones — the conquerors, the liberated, the teachers, the preceptors, and all monks.
- The Jesus Prayer Devotion — The Jesus Prayer repeats one sentence — 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner' — until it becomes continual.
- Vandana and Taking Refuge Devotion — Buddhist devotion opens with homage: bowing before the shrine and going for refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.
- Dhikr Prayer or Creed — The remembrance of God through repeated short formulas of glory, praise, and greatness.
- Jesus Prayer Prayer or Creed — A short, repeated invocation of Jesus asking for mercy, central to the Orthodox hesychast tradition.
- Prayers of the Rosary Prayer or Creed — The set of prayers prayed on the beads of the Rosary, including the Fatima Prayer and the Hail Holy Queen.