Dhikr-tory???
I guess anyone that has visited this might be wondering what I have exactly escaped to. No, Dhikr-tory is not the name of a Somerset village.
Dhikr is an Arabic word meaning "remembrance" but is used when talking about the remembrance of God. All Muslims aim, in theory anyway, to reach a constant state of remembrance of God, i.e. He is in our hearts all the time. Why? Well this little story explains.....
There was once a teacher who lived on a farm. He had 6 students to whom he each entrusted one chicken which they had to feed and care for. When the day for slaughter came he went to each student and told them "go where no-one can see you and slaughter your chicken, then bring it back and we shall have a feast". All went off in the own directions and a few hours later 5 of them returned ready to add their birds to the pot. After waiting another 2 hours the teacher went off to look for the remaining student and found him deep in the woods. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Oh master," replied the boy, "I have been everywhere to slaughter this chicken but realised that where-ever I go I will be seen." "What do you mean?" enquired the teacher. "Master, there is no-where upon this earth that one can not be seen as Allah (God) sees everything."
This student actually went on to become a great Saint.
The point is, if you want to do something (whether it is naughty or not) do you do it when people can see you? No. The same principle applies to a Muslim's life in that if you constantly remember Allah, you constantly know that he is watching. As a result you grow to cut out bad habits and behaving in a manner that is unbecoming.
That is the essence of dhikr.
So what's this got to do with me? Well, living in London you can fall into this trap of getting caught up with "dunya" (worldly things). I was getting like that. Even though it goes against my nature and principles I sometimes caught myself thinking wouldn't a BMW be nice, or I wish we could have a bigger house, etc. To me those things are not important. So, part of the reason for moving out to the country was to become more in a state of dhikr, i.e. to try and increase my closeness to Allah and do things that would help me appreciate the things we are blessed with a bit more. Already through working with the land, feeding animals, growing my own veg I have got a bit of this.
Thus, Escape to Dhikr-tory!
Dhikr is an Arabic word meaning "remembrance" but is used when talking about the remembrance of God. All Muslims aim, in theory anyway, to reach a constant state of remembrance of God, i.e. He is in our hearts all the time. Why? Well this little story explains.....
There was once a teacher who lived on a farm. He had 6 students to whom he each entrusted one chicken which they had to feed and care for. When the day for slaughter came he went to each student and told them "go where no-one can see you and slaughter your chicken, then bring it back and we shall have a feast". All went off in the own directions and a few hours later 5 of them returned ready to add their birds to the pot. After waiting another 2 hours the teacher went off to look for the remaining student and found him deep in the woods. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Oh master," replied the boy, "I have been everywhere to slaughter this chicken but realised that where-ever I go I will be seen." "What do you mean?" enquired the teacher. "Master, there is no-where upon this earth that one can not be seen as Allah (God) sees everything."
This student actually went on to become a great Saint.
The point is, if you want to do something (whether it is naughty or not) do you do it when people can see you? No. The same principle applies to a Muslim's life in that if you constantly remember Allah, you constantly know that he is watching. As a result you grow to cut out bad habits and behaving in a manner that is unbecoming.
That is the essence of dhikr.
So what's this got to do with me? Well, living in London you can fall into this trap of getting caught up with "dunya" (worldly things). I was getting like that. Even though it goes against my nature and principles I sometimes caught myself thinking wouldn't a BMW be nice, or I wish we could have a bigger house, etc. To me those things are not important. So, part of the reason for moving out to the country was to become more in a state of dhikr, i.e. to try and increase my closeness to Allah and do things that would help me appreciate the things we are blessed with a bit more. Already through working with the land, feeding animals, growing my own veg I have got a bit of this.
Thus, Escape to Dhikr-tory!
posted by tomitv @ 3:22 PM
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