Dhikr

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A Dhikr of the Rifai Sufis, historical engraving.

Under Dhikr ( Arabic ذكر, DMG ḏikr  'commemoration') or Dhikr Allāh ( Arabic ذكر الله, DMG ḏikr Allāh  'Remembrance of God') one understands in the Islamic culture a meditative exercise for the visualization of God. In Sufism in particular , this meditative exercise is carried out very intensively (by Sufis or dervishes ). The various Sufi orders differ in the way this ritual is carried out. The one who practices a Dhikr (also Zekr , Zikr and Zikir ) is called Dhākir .

Dhikr is not to be confused with salāt , the ritual prayer to be fulfilled five times a day, which is connected with prescribed body movements. There is also the Duʿā ' , a personal, informal supplication for all Muslims.

Koranic statements

The Dhikr has its basis in Koranic statements. So in sura 33:41 the request appears: “Oh you believers! Remember God with much memory ( ḏikran kaṯīran ) ”. And in sura 13:28 it says: “But those who believe and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of God - yes, don't their hearts find rest in the remembrance of God?” The importance of remembrance of God is emphasized in sura 29:45 : “See, that Prayer keeps from the shameful and reprehensible. But the remembrance of God is truly even more important. "

About the time of remembrance of God and the way in which it is to be carried out, it says in sura 7 : 205: “Remember your Lord with you, in humility in secret and without a loud word, in the morning and in the evening. And do not be one of the careless. "But remembering God is also to be carried out at the end of the pilgrimage rites , as Sura 2: 200 says:" And when you have performed your rites ( Manāsik ), then remember God as you have (so far) yours Fathers thought, or even more intimately ”.

In Sura 2: 152 the Dhikr is presented as a reciprocal relationship between man and God: “So think of me, so that (also) I think of you”. In Sura 39:23 its emotional effect is emphasized: "... then their skins and hearts soften in the memory of God ..." ( Arabic ثُمَّ تَلِيْنُ جُلُودُهُمْ وَقُلُوبُهُمْ إِلٰى ذِكْرِ ﭐللهِ, DMG ṯumma talīnu ǧulūduhum wa-qulūbuhum ilā ḏikri Llāhi ...).

Meaning in Sufism

Quiet and loud dhikr

Among the Sufis there are those who cultivate the Dhikr according to Sura 7 : 205 as a quiet and more meditative exercise ( ḏikr ḫafī ), and those who practice it loudly and ecstatically ( ḏikr ǧalī ). The former form is called "Dhikr of the heart", while the externally audible form is called "Dhikr of the tongue". In the Naqshbandīya , the question of loud and quiet dhikr was widely discussed. The majority of the Naqshbandīs, however, adhered to the silent dhikr. In Yasawīya , on the other hand, one practiced a loud dhikr.

According to Al-Ghazalī, at the beginning of the quiet Dhikr a "cell" is sought and the word "Allah" is repeated aloud several times in order to bring the heart into harmony with God. Those who practice the silent dhikr strive to repeat it over and over so that it continues in the heart even in the midst of all other (worldly) activities. This corresponds to an uninterrupted awareness of God's presence . Nadschm ad-Dīn al-Kubrā describes this persistent God remembrance ( dawām aḏ-ḏikr ) as one of the eight prerequisites for walking the "path of Junaid " ( ṭarīqat al-Ǧunaid ).

Dhikr and Sufi way

Some Sufis believe that God is constantly present in the human heart and that the dhikr is a kind of tool for becoming aware of this divine presence. You describe the heart as a "mirror" that has built up a thick layer of dirt over time. In this case, Dhikr serves as a "polishing agent" with which one can make this mirror shine again and thus reflect the divine mystery.

The Persian Sufi Nadschm ad-Dīn al-Kubrā (d. 1221) describes in his main work Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl the memory of God as a fire that burns everything that it touches. If it does enter a house, it will say "I and no one else" and consume all the firewood there. The difference between the fire of Dhikr and the fire of Satan is that the former is pure, blazing quickly and rising up, while the latter is dirty and dark and slowly blazing. At a later point in his work he distinguishes three levels of "immersion" ( istiġrāq ) when thinking of God. The first immersion is a "immersion of existence in the memory of God" ( istiġrāq al-wuǧūd fī ḏ-ḏikr ). It is like a prince invading an area to conquer. The mystic hears the sound of trumpets, drums, kettledrum, then the sounds of water, wind in the trees, and the hum of bees. In doing so, he could feel intense pain, and there was even a risk of dying. In the second stage of immersion, thinking about God touches the heart, and “thinking about God falls into the heart”. The breakthrough to this level is expressed in visionary experiences. Finally, in the third stage of immersion, there is a “falling into the mystery of remembrance of God”. The mystic loses consciousness of what he is doing and is completely absorbed in the object of his memory. The memory of God no longer leaves the mystic, but is constantly buzzing around in him.

Forms of communal dhikr

Dhikr at the tomb of Qadiriyya Sheikh Hamed al-Nil in Omdurman , Sudan

The Dhikr can be practiced alone as a spiritual exercise or - similar to a litany - in a community, usually as a ceremony of a Sufi order ( Tarīqa ). Individual and communal forms of Dhikr have existed side by side since the early days of Sufism.

Invocation formulas and breathing techniques

In the loud Dhikr, a certain name of God is repeated several times. The simplest and always central dhikr is the repetition of the divine name Allaah, which later merges into the repetition of the final letter “h” and sometimes leads to further formulas. This form of Dhikr appears like an Islamic variant of the name prayer .

Other invocations of God are also often God's beautiful names or the attributes of Allah . The most commonly used formulas are Ya Allah ("Oh Allah"), Ya Hu (such as: "Oh He") and Ya Hayy ("Oh living one"). In addition, the Shahada (the Islamic creed ) is very often spoken collectively: La ilaha illa llah (“There is no God but God”) Muḥammadun rasūlu ʾllāh (i) (“Mohammed is the Messenger of God”) and, as a modification, Lā ilāha ilā Hū (“There is no deity but Him”). The loud dhikr often resembles a rhythmic chant. The formulas are usually recited 11 or 33 times. Stones were initially used for counting, later the Islamic prayer chain ( tasbih ) with 11, 99, but mostly 33 beads, which is also used in silent dhikr, there are further counts with a dhikr tailored to the student ( murid ).

In many common, noisy traditions (to pronounce the divine name with every breath) the pronunciations are connected with an intermittent exhalation. Often there is also alternating breathing with the right and left side, which is technically carried out by alternately tilting the head, upper body to the side or alternately lifting the legs. These breathing techniques need to be practiced.

References to practices in other religions

The Sufi orders know different types of Dhikr, from East Asian methods of meditation similar to self-flagellation, similar to Indian ascetics (" fakirs "). Some Dhikr techniques are similar in every detail to the Eastern Christian Jesus prayer , the Buddhist Nembutsu and the Hindu Japa meditation. It is not certain whether these forms influenced each other technically, whether they go back to common ancient oriental, ancient Iranian and ancient Indian roots, or whether they developed independently of one another. The special breathing techniques and circular arrangements, which probably only emerged in the 13th century, are, however, according to various Sufism researchers, influenced by Iranian and Indian traditions.

Related rituals

Semah the Mevlevi Sufis under the guidance of the teacher.

A communal Dhikr is also known as ḥaḍra ("presence", "presence"). A ḥaḍra (present, meeting) is a complex process in most Sufi orders, which begins with Quran recitations and the recitation of poems by the founder of the ṭarīqa (the Sufi order). This part is called Hizb ( "party", according to the Order) or will (actually / edification "Koran body" originally "watering hole"), respectively. Another part of the ḥaḍra in some orders is the sema , from Arabic samāʿ (literally “to hear”), in which meditative or ecstatic Sufi music is often heard, for example the Bektashi Sufi in a section of the Cem- Dhikr. Some orders also practice a trance dance . This practice was first established in Sufism by Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi , the founder of the Mevlevi order, often known in the West as "whirling dervishes". It spread since the 13th century in some religious and religious sectors and was particularly popular in South Asia, for example in the Tschischtijja -Sufis and Pakistan in Qalandar that and partly rhythmically with drums with iron tongs ( chimtas accompany). Gardet also suspects Indo-Iranian influences on the Semah, other researchers see more influences of Old Turkish shamanism . The heterodox, mystical sect Zikri, founded in the 15th century in the southern Pakistani province of Balochistan , took the name from its dance ritual ( zikr ).

Other names for the communal dhikr are Halqa (Arabic ḥalqa , "circle") and Dāyira (from Arabic dāʾira , "circle"). They are so called because the believers arrange themselves in a circle with them. The Dāyira ritual is particularly widespread in the Comoros and is practiced there by followers of the Shādhilīya and the Qādirīya . In the shādhilīya, the believers hold hands and together under the direction of their sheikh , who stands in the center of the circle, intone the invocation formula called Lahajī . In Qādirīya, the believers do not hold hands, but cross them in front of them and step very close to each other so that shoulders and feet touch. After a phase of the strongly moving dance, everyone pauses and the Sheikh starts a song about the mystical principles that the murid should learn, as well as about ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī and the Prophet Mohammed as moral models.

Audio documents

  • Halveti-Jerrahi-Dhikr - Journey To The Lord Of Power . Inner Traditions International LP, 1980
  • Garden of Paradise - Sufi Ceremony of Remembrance . CD from Pir Publications, 1999

literature

  • Hamid Algar : Silent and vocal dhikr in the Naqshbandī Order. In: Albert Dietrich (Ed.): Files of the 7th Congress for Arabic and Islamic Studies. Göttingen, August 15-22, 1974 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, 98). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-525-82377-0 , pp. 39-46.
  • Georges-Chehata Anawati , Louis Gardet: Mystique musulmane. Aspects et tendances, experiences et techniques (= Etudes Musulmanes. 8). 4th edition. Vrin, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-7116-0269-9 .
  • Henry Corbin : Alone with the Alone. Creative imagination in the Ṣūfism of Ibn ʻArabī (= Bollingen Series. 91). Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1998, ISBN 0-691-05834-2 .
  • Henry Corbin: The man of light in Iranian sufism. Shambhala, Boulder CO et al. 1978, ISBN 0-87773-114-4 .
  • Louis Gardet: Dh ikr. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam . Volume 2: C - G. New Edition. Brill et al., Leiden et al. 1965, pp. 223-226.
  • Roman Loimeier: The dhikr: On the social context of a religious ritual in Der Islam, Volume 83, 2006, pp. 170–186.
  • Fritz Meier : The Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-ǧalāl of the Naǧm ad-Dīn al-Kubrā. A presentation of mystical experiences in Islam from around 1200 AD (= Academy of Sciences and Literature. Publications of the Oriental Commission. 9). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1957, pp. 205-214.
  • Ian Richard Netton: Ṣūfī ritual. The parallel universe. Curzon, Richmond 2000, ISBN 0-7007-1242-9 .
  • Javad Nurbachsch : Zikr. The heart of the Sufi practice. 4th edition. Institute for Islamic Studies - Sûfi-Archiv Germany, Trebbus 2001, ISBN 3-931494-46-2 .
  • Annemarie Schimmel : Deciphering the signs of God. A phenomenological approach to Islam. State University of New York Press, Albany NY 1994, ISBN 0-7914-1981-9 .
  • Annemarie Schimmel: Pain and grace. A study of two mystical writers of eighteenth-century Muslim India (= Studies in the History of Religions. 36). Brill, Leiden 1976, ISBN 90-04-04771-9 .
  • Annemarie Schimmel: Sufism. An introduction to Islamic mysticism (= Beck series. 2129 C.-H.-Beck knowledge ). Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46028-3 .
  • Annemarie Schimmel: The signs of God. The religious world of Islam. Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39754-9 .

References and comments

  1. ↑ In Persian and Turkish, the Arabic ḏikr is pronounced zikr / zekr or zikir with the same spelling ( DMG ẕikr ) .
  2. ↑ a b c Gardet: Dh ikr. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume 2. New Edition. 1965, pp. 223-226, here p. 224.
  3. ↑ See Algar: Silent and vocal dhikr in the Naqshbandī Order. In: Dietrich (Ed.): Files of the 7th Congress for Arabic and Islamic Studies. 1976, pp. 39-46.
  4. ↑ Gardet: Dh ikr. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume 2. New Edition. 1965, pp. 223–226, here p. 224, with reference to Al-Ghazalis The revival of the religious sciences. (إحياء علوم الدين) Arabic edition, Cairo 1933, III, 16-17.
  5. ↑ See Meier: The Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl. 1957, p. 162.
  6. ↑ See Meier: The Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl. 1957, p. 205. Arab. Part p. 4. (No. 8 f).
  7. ↑ See Meier: The Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl. 1957, p. 205.
  8. ↑ See Meier: The Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl. 1957, p. 208 f.
  9. ↑ See Meier: The Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl. 1957, p. 211 f.
  10. ↑ Schimmel: Sufism. 2000, pp. 19-20.
  11. ↑ Schimmel: Sufism. 2000, p. 20.
  12. ↑ Gardet: Dh ikr. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume 2. New Edition. 1965, pp 223-226, here p 224, see for example in this community dhikr of supporters of Halveti - Uschschaki -Ordens, the recitation of the word "Allah" is later on an increasingly "gehechelten" "h".
  13. ↑ see e.g. B. Gardet: Dh ikr. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume 2. New Edition. 1965, pp. 223-226, here pp. 223-224.
  14. ↑ see e.g. B. Gardet: Dh ikr. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume 2. New Edition. 1965, pp. 223-226, here p. 224.
  15. ↑ Stephen Pastner, Carroll McC. Pastner: Aspects of Religion in Southern Baluchistan. In: Anthropologica, New Series, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1972, pp. 231-241, here p. 233
  16. ↑ See Gardet: Dh ikr. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume 2. New Edition. 1965, pp. 223-226, here p. 224.
  17. ↑ See Abdallah Chanfi Ahmed: Islam et politique aux Comores. Evolution de l'autorité spirituelle depuis le Protectorat français (1886) jusqu'à nos jours. L'Harmattan, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-7384-8208-2 , pp. 55 f.