REMEMBRANCE OF ALLAH

All praise is due to Allah alone and peace and blessings be upon the messenger of Allah.
Ibn Taymiyyah wrote “remembrance of Allah is to the heart what water is to fish. What happens to fish when it is taken out of water?” Remembrance of Allah is one of the easiest forms of worship, the mercy and honor that it brings cannot be achieved by any other means. Remembrance of Allah is remedy for hard hearts. A man once told al Hassan “O Abu sa’id, I complain to you about the hardness of my heart”, he said “soften it with the remembrance of Allah”. Makhul said “remembrance of Allah is (a sign of)health, while remembrance of people is like a disease. A man once asked salman, “which deeds are the best?” he said “haven’t you read in the Quran {and the remembrance of Allah is greatest (29;45)}.
Continual remembrance of Allah increases a servant’s good witnesses on the day of resurrection. It is a means which prevents him from talking in the wrong way. There are several types of remembrance of Allah; remembrance of the Names of Allah, praising HIM, thanking HIM. They can take the form of saying, for example “subhaanallah” “Alhamdulillah”. One can also remember Allah by talking about His blessings and mentioning what He has commanded and what He has forbidden. The messenger of Allah said in an hadith which is agreed upon  by bukhari and Muslim “2 statements are light on the tongue but heavy on the scale and loved by Ar Rahman ‘subhaanallahi wa bihamdihi’ ‘subhaanallahi al adheem’ hence we can gain lots of reward by saying such statements and also ‘subhaanallah walhamdulilllah wa laa ilaha illa Allah wa Allahu akbar’ while walking to the lecture hall, waiting on the queue, waiting for the next lecturer to come in, while in the bus or even while cooking or picking beans.
NOTE>>>>> THE BEST TYPE OF REMEMBERANCE IS THE RECITATION OF THE QURAN FOR IT IS A HEALING AND MERCY FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE.
Lastly, I want to beseech us to discipline ourselves and try our best to be consistent upon remembering Allah for “surely in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” (13:28). May Allah forgive me my shortcomings and may He have mercy on the one who shows me my faults. May HE also make this to benefit us in both worlds (Aameen). WASSALAAMU ALAYKUM WAROHMATULLAH.

Most of this write up was gotten from the book PURIFICATION OF THE SOUL, a book compiled from the words of ibn Rajab al hanbali, ibn al qayyim al jawziyyah and abu hamid al ghazali.
                                                                                                              AmatuLlah