The 47th Syarah of Wisdom – Syarah al-Hikam

47th WISDOM OF WISDOM

النُّوْرُ جُنْدُ الْقَلْبِ كَمَا أَنَّ الظُّلْمَةَ جُنْدُ النَّفْسِ فَإِذَا أَرَادَ اللهُ أَنْ يَنْصُرَ عَبْدَهُ أَمَدَّهُ بِجُنُوْدِ الْأَنْوَارِ وَ قَطَعَ عَنْهُ مَدَدَ الظُّلَمِ وَ الْأَغْيَارِ.

" Light is a warrior of the heart, just as darkness is a warrior of lust. When Allah wants to help His servant, then He helps him with the warrior of light and cut off the aid of darkness and creation from him. ”

 "Don't stop dhikr, even though the heart with Him is not present. Because not remembrance at all, is worse than remembrance even though the heart is negligent.” 

"It could be that Allah brought you from being negligent in remembrance to remembrance of full awareness, thus leading to His friendship."

We understand the meaning and division of dhikr.

[A] verbal remembrance but the heart is negligent

[B] remembrance of the heart

[C] remembrance in His presence

[D] The remembrance of mortality from other than Him.

Indeed, the lowest degree of remembrance is when remembering verbally mentions it, but it is accompanied by a negligent heart. However, don't let remembrance be limited to verbal and not touch the recesses of the heart to be a reason to leave remembrance altogether.

As mentioned in this wisdom. The state will be gradual, have a sequence phase and cannot be done instantaneously. On many occasions the Qur'an interprets the word remembrance by 'remembering' (mind activity) as opposed to negligent. Like QS. Al-A'raf: 205

"And call upon your Lord (name) in your hearts with humility and fear, and without raising your voice, in the morning and evening, and do not be of those who are heedless."

So oral remembrance means the activity of remembering Allah through verbal intermediaries, and it is possible to do it with a negligent heart. However, if it is carried out continuously, oral remembrance is like an introductory gate to arrive at remembrance with a conscious heart.

Therefore, in the Hadith, it is conveyed that the Prophet warned by always making a will to his companions not to leave the routine of remembrance. HR. Tirmidhi from Abdullah bin Bisr; "A man said, "O Messenger of Allah, there are so many Shari'ah in Islam, teach me a practice for me to hold on to!" The Prophet replied, "Continue not to stop wetting your lips with the remembrance of Allah."

Of course the command to perform oral remembrance is a must in order to arrive at the heart remembrance as the core of a hope. Only sometimes, some people feel that oral remembrance and heart remembrance are difficult conditions to combine. So the oral remembrance is stopped.

"Don't stop remembrance just because it hasn't arrived in His presence, because that is better than not doing remembrance at all." Ibn Athaillah.

There are at least 3 reasons underlying Ibn Athaillah's statement, as explained by Sekh Ahmad Zarruq below:

First , oral remembrance is a state of facing God, while letting the tongue remain silent without remembrance means turning away from God completely.

Second , oral remembrance is defined as an effort to decorate the limbs with worship, while not doing remembrance is the same as preventing the body from getting a reward.

Third , oral remembrance makes a person worthy of Allah's grace and in turn leads to a higher stage; heart remembrance.

Oral remembrance but the heart is negligent . Busy speech with remembrance is certainly worth the reward, only its reach is limited to one organ of the body; orally, does not spread to other body organs. However, slowly continuous oral remembrance will affect all organs of the body, until it eventually penetrates the dimensions of the heart. Aren't bad words that come out of someone's mouth like cursing, gossip, etc. Also has an impact on the hardness and neglect of the heart?

So it's the same with the mouth that always remembrance / recitations will bring positive power in the form of obedience and light that shines on the walls of the heart. The heart is negligent, but the tongue continues to move in remembrance, the haliyah seems to say: "Even though this heart is busy, so that it forgets from You, at least I have kept these lips busy by mentioning and glorifying Your name, and I do not use it to say things that are not You are pleased."

The remembrance of the heart is the awakening of the heart to the meaning contained in the oral remembrance as well as contemplation and feelings that do not float. This situation is the initial stage for the readiness of the heart to be present in His presence. Even as a first step away from busyness that gets in the way. What is the difference between remembrance with a conscious heart and remembrance being present in His presence? Of course there is a difference, let's find out the answer.

Mindful dhikr is remembering the contents of the words spoken but not touching feelings and beliefs at all. The presence of the heart in remembrance is the feeling of the person who is doing dhikr drawn by the power of love, fear and reverence for the Essence he calls. This is the phase difference in degrees of [C] dhikr in His presence and [D] remembrance of mortality from other than Him.

This situation will also automatically turn a person away from thinking about the busyness of the world which is filled with lustful desires. Why automatic? Because Allah did not create 2 hearts in the human body. If he is able to fill the day with remembrance, the world is lost in thought.

Maybe in your heart you are muttering, "Dhikr with the heart and conscious mind is easy, the difficult thing is to be present in His presence!" So the therapy that can be done is continuous in the awareness of remembrance, then gradually it will help to be present in His presence.

For example, someone istikamah recitation while living the meaning, will continuously bring ta'zim and love to Allah. If I'm honest, if someone has reached the stage of remembrance with heart awareness, there really is no need for verbal remembrance. How come? Yes In fact, he must maintain the condition of the heart so as not to forget for a second. Unless the remembrance is ma'tsur (coming) from the Prophet, it must be in sync between the heart and the tongue. Namely the remembrance recommended by the Prophet such as istighfar at dawn, salawat to the Prophet, etc.

An even higher phase is when a person is given the gift to be able to remembrance by being present in His presence . Always remember Allah and Allah. If this phase can be done with istikamah until it becomes part of the routine, then besides Allah is vanished and only Allah is eternal, namely remembrance that makes one forget the environment that surrounds him, so that every interaction that comes to mind always leads to Allah. This is what is called 'God Oriented People', the orientation of the mind that always goes to and ends with God Almighty.

The conclusion of this wisdom: There is no way to get to the presence of Allah except by dhikr (mentioning and remembering) Allah.  Zikr with full meaning as above is the essence of one's worship. Without it, worship is only a chart/frame without essence.

So think about the meaning of QS. Al-Kahf: 28.

"And do not follow those whose hearts I neglect and always follow their lusts."