Remembering God

You shall remember Me, that I may remember you,
and be thankful to Me; do not be unappreciative.
(2:152)

O you who believe, you shall remember God frequently. You shall glorify Him day and night. (33:41-42)

Some of the traits of a believer in God alone are given in the following verse:

They remember God while standing, sitting, and on their sides, and they reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth: “Our Lord, You did not create all this in vain. Be You glorified. Save us from the retribution of Hell. (3:191)

From the above verses we understand that as a believer we are commanded to remember God frequently. Glorifying Him during the day and the night in whatever position or circumstance that we might find ourselves. The question is how can we remember God morning and evening,

day and night, standing and sitting? There are two ways in which this is possible: the first method involves those things that can be done at any moment in time, and the second method involves actions that need to be performed, such as actual worshipping practices and rites, like Salat (Contact Prayers), Zakat (Obligatory Charity), Hajj pilgrimage, etc.

I would like to reflect on the things that can be undertaken at any time and without interference to anything that we normally do on a daily basis. In other words: things that can be done at any time, which translates into remembering God at all times. But how can this be done without transforming one’s life into a state of seclusion or hermitism? How can one

remember God at all times during the normal course of our daily life without withdrawing oneself completely from everyday life and all its involvement? We know from the Quran that we simply cannot live our lives secluded from others because the Quran informs us that hermitism is not allowed.

Subsequent to them, we sent our messengers. We sent Jesus the son of Mary, and we gave him the Injeel (Gospel), and we placed in the hearts of his followers kindness and mercy. But they invented hermitism which we never decreed for them. All we asked them to do was to uphold the commandments approved by God. But they did not uphold the message as they should have…. (57:27)

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