The Merits of Dhikr

[Tafsir Mariful Qur'an Surah Baqarah Verse 152]
Dhikr or 'Remembrance' essentially pertains to theheart, but in so far
as the tongue is the interpreter of the heart the oral recitation of a
Divine Name or a verse of the Holy Qur'an is also described as Dhikr .
In other words, oral Dhikr can be worth the name only when it is
accompanied by the 'remembrance' of the heart. As the great Sufi poet
Rumi points out, therecitation of a Divine name can have no efficacy
if one keeps thinking of cows and donkeys while repeating it
mechanically with the tongue. One must, however, bear in mind that
even a mechanical Dhikr without the heart being engaged in it is not
altogether futile. It is related that the great Sufi Abu Uthman,
hearinga man complain of such asituation, remarked that one should be
grateful to Allah even for this favour of having drawn at least one
organ of the body into His service. (Qurtubi)
The merits of Dhikr are, indeed, innumerable. What greater merit
couldone wish for than the assurance that when a man 'remembers'
Allah, He too 'remembers' him. Abu Uthman once claimed that he knew
thetime when Allah remembered His servants. The listeners grew curious
as to how he could determine this. He replied that, according to the
promisemade in the Holy Qur'an, when a Muslim remembers Allah, He too
remembers him, and thuseveryone can know for himself that as soon as
heturns to Allah and remembers Him, Allah tooremembers him.
Let us add that Verse 152 means to say that if men ' remember ' Allah
by obeying His commandments, He will 'remember' them by granting His
pardon and His rewards. The commentator Sa'id ibn Jubayr has, in fact,
interpreted the Dhikr or 'remembrance' of Allah as obedience and
submission to Him. He says:
"He who has not obeyed Him has not rememberedHim, even though he has
kept himself externally busy in offering (nafl: supererogatory)
prayers and reciting His praises."
This explanation is fully supported by a hadith cited by Al-Qurtubi on
theauthority of Ahkam Al-Qur'an by Ibn KhuwayzMandadh. The Holy
Prophet (??? ???? ????????)�has said that one who has been obeying
Allah – that is, following the injunctions with regards to the Halal
and Haram – has truly been remembering Allah , in spite of being
deficient in (nafl: supererogatory) prayers and fasting, while one who
has been disobeying divine commandments has, in fact, forgotten Allah,
in spite of devoting long hours to nafl prayers, fasting and
recitation of His praises.
The great Sufi Master Dhual-Nun al-Misri has said that the man who
remembers Allah in the full sense of the term forgets everything else,
and that, in reward of such a total absorption, Allah Himself takes
care of all his concerns, and grants him something farmore valuable
for everything he loses. Similarly, the blessed Companion Mu'adh
(??????? ????? ???)�has remarked that in so far as winning absolution
from the divine wrath is concerned, no good deed on the part of man
can compare with Dhikr. And in a hadith reported by the blessed
Companion Abu Hurayrah(?), Allah Himself says that so long as the
servant keeps remembering Him and his lips keep moving in Dhikr, Allah
is with him.