بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me. [Al Baqara: 152]
After mentioning His favours upon us, Allah asks us to do His dhikr which will elevate us to the point where Allah will remember us and mention us.
So how can we do dhikr of Allah?
The supreme kind of dhikr is when we remember Allah, all the time. So much so that we are conscious of His presence with us ALL THE TIME. Then and only then will this remembrance stop us from doing sins, and entice us towards doing good. Taking His name while we may not feel His presence is actually the lowest form of dhikr.
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 remembered Him, even though he has kept himself externally busy in offering (nafl) prayers and reciting His praises.”
This explanation is fully supported by a hadith cited by Al-Qurtubi. Rasulullah (SAW) has said that one who has been obeying Allah – that is, following the injunctions with regard to the lawful (Halal) and the unlawful (Haram) – has truly been remembering Allah, in spite of being deficient in (nafl) 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.
Unfortunately ummah today thinks that singing His praises can qualify us for this reward even if we are blatantly disregarding every rule of Halaal and Haraam. So much so that we construct masaajid with money earned from interest, we sing His Hamd with a background music and brainstorm ways to please Him in a gathering which disregards all the laws of Hijaab.
Ibn Kathir has mentioned a beautiful Hadith al Qudsi from Masnad Al Imam Ahmad under the commentary of this ayat.
Allah the Exalted said, `O son of Adam! If you mention Me to yourself, I will mention you to Myself. If you mention Me in a gathering, I will mention you in a gathering of the angels. If you draw closer to Me by a hand span, I will draw closer to you by forearm’s length. If you draw closer to Me by a forearm’s length, I will draw closer to you by an arm’s length. And if you come to Me walking, I will come to you running).’
سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك نشهد ان لااله الّا انت نستغفرك و نتوب اليك