Dhikr: The Remembrance of God

We came from him and we merge back to him - the ancient practice of the soul is Dikhr

I must say that this book is quite a powerhouse. Not in itself, sort of, because a lot of it is so dense with information that I must admit I do not have a full grasp of his relatively unique use of terminology. It is, most importantly, inspiring and instructive in the constant remembrance of God. What is lost in details is no doubt easily made up in actual practice where God would write on our hearts a deeper understanding than any book could possibly ever give. For that reason I give it five stars, because by faithfully following its thorough instruction one would be assured to grow spiritualy in a way unparalleled by most other "methods."

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is one of the most unique of the holy men of Islam. 'Dhikr: The Remembrance of God' is a collection of oral discourses delivered and transcribed in the West concerning the spiritual method he preferred. This method might be thought of as 'Yogic Islam', though there are also Tantric elements at work here. It consists of a synthesis between pranayana and the invocation of Islam's credal formula, la illaha illa 'Llah. Bawa explains that the negative aspect of the formula "There is no god if not God" is to be enunciated in the exhalation of the breath, as if riding the body and mind of the impurities associated with corporeality, while the affirmation "if not God" is brought in through the inhalation of the breath and deposited in the heart, the seat of consciousness, the 'place' where Man and God meet. This practice, an embodiment of Tawhid, is given expression with compelling imagery, a rich tapestry of analogies, and all manner of classic lore, which makes reading Bawa so much fun. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen comes from a rich tradition of Tamil Sufis who are known as the 'Bawas'. This community is a colorful group of semi-itinerant mendicant mystics, invisible to the larger Sinhalese Buddhist and Tamil Hindu communities of Sri Lanka, who breath the celestial air of paradise even while walking in our world. The Bawas consider themselves members of the Qadiriya order but their practice of Dhikr comes primarily through the Rifa'i order, founded in Iraq by Ahmad al-Rifa'i (d. 1182), to which they also belong. These mystics can best be seen as constituting, in their own way, the religion of al-Khidr, a meta-historical Sage-Prophet imbued with Divine Knowledge and venerated in the Sufi tradition. The 'Bawa' also manifest something rare in Islam, they are a sort of synthesis of the Vedic and Abrahamic wisdom traditions, half Sufi half Sannyasa, and in this they have a lot to offer both communities of the faithful.

If you are into Sufi or other mystical studies this is a very good book. I've read other works by Bawa and this, along with The Resonance of Allah, is among his best. There are so many insightful words here, filling in many details of the unseen realms, that if you have any orientation already you will get alot out of this book. This is highly recommended. If this is in line with your studies then you should also know Hazrat Inayat Khan who was a Sufi teacher who came to the west at the beginning of the 1900s. His talk/book, The Way of Illumination, is outstanding.

Good