Zikr |
| Zikr literally means ÎremembranceÌ. The word most commonly refers
to a type of movement prayer common to the Gnostic schools of Islam.
A common zikr movement would be to bob from one side to the other, the
intent of the self plunging into the heart and then back out again.
The bobbing before the wailing wall in Jerusalem, it could be said, is
a form of zikr.
The action of the undulation often has the inner intent of affirmation and denial, of annihilation and rebirth. In Islam, a commonly used phrase for zikr is part of the shahada. ÏLa illaha, ila Allah huÓ ÏThere is no God ... There is only God. There is no reality ... there is the one reality. There is no self here that I am ... I am! The utterance by the divinity to Moses on the mount sheds light upon the practice of zikr and the annihilation and rebirth aspects of it. ÏJVHÓ ÏI am that I am.Ó Zikr may be partaken in in many ways. The heartbeat, for instance, may be at once the voice of and the movement of zikr. |