Zikr – the life-changing practice

A few days ago, I took a quick trip from the Rihla in San Fransisco, over the pond, and to the Bradford Literature Festival.
While I was there, after my book presentation, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a session lead by Shaykh Abdal Haqq Bewley (scholar, author & translator of several excellent and needed books, including the Quran), who was presenting a book by Mufti Qazi Hasan Raza, called ‘Zikr’.
Zikr means ‘bringing something to mind’. In Islam, the aim of life is to constantly do Zikr of Allah, the Most High; to be in constant mindfulness or ‘remembrance’ of Allah.
It was profound, and touching, and the speaking was followed by a long period of silent zikr-meditation, lead by the author, Mufti Qazi Hasan Raza.
Something occurred to me, which was re-inforced during this magical lecture:
We do constant Zikr of whatever we believe has the power to cause our feelings.
Whether it’s your spouse, your children, your work, your finances, the state of your health & fitness… as long as you believe that it can make you feel good or bad… you’ll be pre-occupied with it.
Which means… you won’t be pre-occupied with Allah.
People often ask me how to quiet the mind, and be connected with Allah.
My answer: remove the illusion that keeps your mind noisy and keeps you disconnected from Allah.
That is – the illusion that anything other than the God-given gift of thought has the power to cause a feeling.
If you want to know how to systematically remove this illusion, and in the process discard the egotistical thinking that messes up our lives, you know what to do… start with The Paradigm Shift and then Instant Ihsan:
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