TOPZikr manifested in words is but a declaration that the heart has not forgotten Almighty Allah, the Creator of the Universes. The inward silent Zikr is a movement of the emotions and the Zikr of the heart is through feeling in oneself the manifestation of Almighty Allah’s power, beauty and grace, while the remembrance of the soul is through the enlightenment of the divine light generated by Almighty Allah’s might, power and beauty. The Zikr of the level of the secret realm is through the ecstasy received from beholding (observing) the divine secrets. The remembrance (zikr) of the hidden realm brings one to: the place of truth in the presence of a sovereign Omnipotent (Sura Qamar, 55). The Zikr at the final level that is called khafi al-akhfa (the most hidden of the hidden) brings one to a state of annihilation of the self and unification with the truth. In reality non other than Almighty Allah knows the state of the one who has penetrated into that realm containing all knowledge, which is the end of all and everything. Surely he knows the secret and what is yet more hidden (Sura Ta Ha, 7).
When the seeker for truth has passed through these stages of Zikr, a different state of spirit, as if an entirely different soul, is born in one. That soul is purer and finer than all the other souls; it is the child of the heart, the child of truth. He places the soul with His decree in the hearts of those whom He chooses (Sura Mumin, 15).
This soul is sent from the realm of the All-powerful and is placed in the universe of the visible worlds where the attributes of the Creator are manifest in the creation, but it belongs to the realm of truth. It does neither favor nor pay attention to anything but the Essence of Almighty Allah. Our Master the beloved Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) explains, "This world is undesirable and unlawful for those who wish for the hereafter. The hereafter is undesirable for those who wish for this world, and it will not be given to them, but for the souls who seek Allah’s Essence, neither this world nor the hereafter has any attraction." This soul is the child of truth and it is within one, which will seek, find and be with its Lord.
Over and above anything you do, the material being in you must follow the straight path which is only through preserving and following the teachings of religion and to do this one has to be conscious, to remember, to remember Almighty Allah night and day, inwardly and outwardly, continuously. For those who seek the truth, to remember Almighty Allah is no obligation, as Almighty Allah orders:
Remember Allah standing and sitting and lying down (Sura Nisa, 103)...and those who remember Allah standing and sitting and lying their sides, and who reflect on the creation of the heavens and this earth. Our Lord, Thou has not created this in vain! Glory be to thee …(Sura Al Imaran, 190).
One of the conditions that prepare one to remember is to be in a state of ablution; washed and cleansed bodily and purified inwardly. At the beginning, a condition for the effectiveness of Zikr is to pronounce aloud the words and phrases of what is to be remembered such as the Confession of Unity, the attributes of Almighty Allah. When these words are recited, one shall use all one’s effort to be in a conscious state so that the heart hears the word and is enlightened with the light of what is remembered. It receives energy and becomes alive, not only alive in this world, but alive forever in the hereafter. Almighty Allah most High describes this eternal life: They taste not therein death, except the first death…(Sura Dukhan, 56).
Our Master the beloved Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) describing the state of the seeker who achieves truth through Zikr, says, "Believers do not die. They only pass from this temporal life to the everlasting life." And these believers do there what they did here, as he says, "The Prophets and the friends of Almighty Allah continue their worship in their graves as they did in their houses." The worship our Master the beloved Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) mentions is inward supplication of Allah, not the prayer obligatory five times a day in this world, with its standing, bowing and prostration. Inward silent supplication is one of the principal qualities identifying a true seeker and believer.
Wisdom is not attained by man, but is given to him by Almighty Allah and after being elevated to that state, the wise become intimate with the secrets of Almighty Allah, and Allah the Eternal Lord brings the seeker close to His secrets only if one’s heart is alive and conscious with the remembrance (Zikr) if Him, and, if that conscious heart has the wish to receive the Truth. Our beloved Master, the noble Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) says, "My eyes sleep, but my heart is ever awake".
The importance of wishing in obtaining wisdom and truth is explained in the words of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), "If a person wishes to learn and acts upon his wish and studies, but dies before attaining his goal, Almighty Allah assigns him two angels as teachers who teach him divine wisdom until the Day of Judgment. That dead person is raised from his grave as a wise man who has obtained the truth." The two angels here represent the spirit of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the light of love and sanctity, which connects man with Allah. The beloved Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) further explains the importance of wish and intention: "Many who wish to know die ignorant, but they are raised from their graves on the Day of Judgment as wise; and many the man of knowledge is raised on that day depraved, having lost everything, and totally ignorant." Those men who are proud of their knowledge, who seek knowledge in order to obtain the goods of the world and to sin, are warned:
You receive your good things in life of the world and you took your pleasure from them, but today shall be recompensed with a penalty of humiliation, for that you were arrogant on earth without just cause and that you (even) transgressed (Sura Ahqaf, 20).
The beloved Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) says, "Actions are conditioned by and tied to intentions. The wish and intention of the faithful seeker are better and more worthy in the sight of Almighty Allah than are his actions. The intention of the unfaithful is worse than what appears in his actions because for Almighty Allah, the good intentions of the believer is more worthy than the best deed of the unfaithful." Intention is the foundation of action. Our Master the Prophet says, "It is good to build a good deed upon a good foundation, and a sin is a deed built upon bad intentions." His Eminence, Hazrat Maulana Ibrahim Khushtar Siddiqui Qadiri Razvi has stressed this very important point regarding sincerity of action and intention on many occasions during his lectures during the last three decades.
Sayyiduna Abdul Qadir Jilani (may Allah be pleased with him) further concludes that the best course is to find and seek a true spiritual guide who will bring your heart to life and this will secure the eternal life of the hereafter. The great Grandmaster further stresses that "This is urgent"; it has to be done immediately in this life before the time is spent as this world is the field of the hereafter and the seeker who does not plant here will not reap there. The Polestar of Saints, the Ghaus-ul Azam (the manifestation of Allah’s attribute, ‘the All-Powerful’) who hears the cry for help and saves the one’s in need, and the Qutb-al-Azam (the pole, the center and summit of spiritual evolution, the spiritual ruler of the world, the ultimate source of wisdom, container of all knowledge….) further urges us to plant our field upon this wonderful earth with both the subjective seeds of a good life that will yield a grand harvest in the hereafter.
May Almighty Allah, the Eternal Lord, the All-Powerful and Most Compassionate shower blessings on the soul of Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani (may Allah be pleased with him), and those faithful sincere seekers of wisdom who helped translate this knowledge verbally and those who have penned and translated the works of this great Saint so that we main grab these pearls of wisdom. Amin!