What is Dhikr or Adhkar (plural of Dhikr)?
Dhikr, which means “Remembrance,” is an act of worship in Islam in which short Duas and prayers are recited continually to remember Allah (SWT). Dhikr is a simple yet very powerful way to worship Allah (SWT). We can remember Allah SWT whenever we want to. We can be doing any of our day to day activities and remember Allah SWT while doing those. We also don’t need to
have Wudhu for that. Whether we have spare time or not doesn’t matter if you want to remember Allah SWT. We just need to have the desire to remember Allah and that is it.
Dhikr has many benefits such as countless rewards, good deeds and Allah’s
support in our daily lives. Allah Almighty says in Holy Quran:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ ذِكْرًا كَثِيرًا (الأحزاب: 41)
“O ye who believe! Remember Allah with much remembrance.” [Quran 33:41]
Allah (SWT) has made Islam so simple for the believers that even the shortest Surahs and phrases can result in the highest reward. For example, the reward for reciting ‘Alhamdulillah’ is that it will fill the scale with good deeds on the Day of Judgment. Because dhikr is so simple and rewarding, it is a form of worship that we should aim to implement into our daily lives.
There are so many authentic hadith that encourage us to increase our remembrance of Allah, and it is enough of encouragement that the prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم said,
"The similarity of the one who remembers Allah and the one who does not is like that of the living and the dead" [Bukhari].
Therefore, we must increase our remembrance of Allah to become like the living, who benefit themselves and others, rather than the dead, who remain unchanged and are rotting away.
Because all these forms of remembrance of Allah are important, we see that the prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم used to constantly repeat some adhkar supplications every morning and evening. These supplications are also known as the morning and evening supplications or the daily adhkar.
“The morning and evening supplications are like a fort or shield for the believers. The stronger and thicker it is, the more protective it is for its reciter.”
Importance of morning & evening Adhkar?
The optimum time of reciting these supplications is at dawn before sunrise and at dusk before sunset, as Allah says in the Qur’an
وَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ قَبْلَ طُلُوعِ الشَّمْسِ وَقَبْلَ الْغُرُوبِ (ق: 39)
اور آفتاب کے طلوع ہونے سے پہلے اور اس کے غروب ہونے سے پہلے اپنے پروردگار کی تعریف کے ساتھ تسبیح کرتے رہو
“And exalt with praise of your Lord before the rising of the sun and before its setting” [Quran 50:39]
Because of verses such as this, one should attempt to recite the morning supplications after Fajr and the evening supplications after Asr. This also makes sense because you complete the morning supplications just before morning begins (sunrise) and the evening supplications just before evening begins (sunset) to ensure that you are fully protected at all times.
The morning and evening supplications have deep significance and are a powerful source of protection. They not only allow us to feel Allah’s support with us every day, but they also provide us with calmness and peace, remind us of the significance of certain actions, teach us about Allah, and put us in a state of mind that encourages us to continue our day in a way that pleases Allah SWT.
Psychological view:
According to psychologists, human mind acts as the way it thinks. Many studies performed have indicated that our way of thinking about a matter actually affects whether we will succeed in performing that very task. For example, we only take the medicine believing that it will take our pain or disease away and when we do that i.e. when we think about the medicine with that believe, the medicine actually works.
Similarly, when a Muslim recites daily adhkar, he knows that he’s in the protection of Allah SWT from all kind of evils and his mind acts peacefully and remains calm. If you have not done that before, try it from now on, and I assure you that you’ll surely see its positive impact on your life, by the will of Allah SWT, In Sha Allah. And when you do that, become regular in it until it becomes a habit and you’re remembering Allah at every possible time, your life will never be same again. An important thing to remember here is our death. If remembering Allah SWT all the time becomes your habit, you might die while reciting the adhkar, praising Allah SWT, which will be a beautiful death, one that every Muslim wishes for, to die in submission to Allah SWT.
How to get maximum benefit?
To gain benefits from these morning and evening supplications, a person must understand, seriously consider, and live by their meanings. As we previously stated, they are like a strong shield, and the strength of this shield is defined by your belief in them.
It is very important for the one reciting them to do so with understanding its meaning and focus, so that their heart opens up to them and he/she tastes the sweetness of Iman, rather than simply repeating them every morning and evening as if they were a daily chore that did not necessitate the presence of the heart.
By Allah’s permission, I ’ll start a series of brief explanations of some of the morning and evening supplications so that we might understand their meanings and reflect onto it and live by them.
To sum up, there are several advantages of saying the morning and evening Adkar on a daily basis:
- Provide you calmness and peace of heart.
- Help you to become closer to Allah.
- Give you the strength to perform your everyday tasks.
- As you begin and end your day by depending on Allah in all your concerns, Allah grant you success in your matters and gives.
- Protect you from the evil eye (‘ain), jinn’s, diseases and mankind’s misdeeds.
- Wash away your sins
- Raise your status in Allah’s eyes.
- You have a guarantee of Jannah by reciting Sayyid ul Istighfar Sahih al Bukhari (6306).
We will soon be sharing a file which has the most of the adhkar from the sahih (authentic) ahadees. Please keep an eye out for that. Jazak’Allah khair.