Dhikr

Dhikr, “remembrance” or “mention”, is the remembrance of God, and the central practice of Sufism. The Qurʾān commands believers to remember God often, and says that in the remembrance of God hearts find rest. In Sufi practice dhikr is the repetition, aloud or silently, of a divine name, such as Allāh, or of a formula such as the first half of the profession of faith, “there is no god but God”.

Dhikr may be performed alone or in a gathering, with set numbers of repetitions, with breath and posture, and in some orders with music and movement, such as the turning ceremony of the Mevlevis. The Sufi orders transmit their own forms of dhikr from master to disciple, and distinguish the remembrance of the tongue, of the heart and of the innermost being.

The goal is that remembrance should become continual, until the one who remembers is absorbed in the one remembered. The resemblance between dhikr and the Jesus Prayer of the Orthodox hesychasts, and the repetition of the name in Hindu devotion, has often been noted.