Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Praise be to Him, the Good, the Beautiful. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, without a partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. Peace be upon him, his family, and his companions, and those who follow them in good faith until the Day of Judgment.
If Allah Wills, today I am going to mention the fifth means, the fifth way to attain self-motivation, dedication, enthusiasm, and conviction. This is going to be the fifth means to have an expanded chest, to be in a state of ease and tranquility. And it is dawām adh-dhikri lillāhi Ta'āla—being consistent in the remembrance of Allah Subḥānahu Wa Ta'āla.
My beloved brothers and sisters, being consistent in the remembrance of Allah is one of the greatest means, one of the greatest ways to attain tranquility of the heart, relaxation, comfort, and the removal of distress, depression, and sadness, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Distress and sadness are not removed, and no hardship will ever be removed from you except through the remembrance of Allah and when you are truthful in turning back to Allah Subḥānahu Wa Ta'āla. Please remember this, brothers and sisters. In the course of your life, as long as you live on this earth, remember this statement that I am going to say, in shā’ Allāh.
And that is: the human body requires water. You, as an individual, have a required amount of water that you should be taking daily. And if you ignore that and choose not to take that amount, over time, your body dehydrates. And what tends to happen is you start to feel headaches. You also develop complications—your skin, you start having spots and things like that—all of which come from not taking the required amount of water.
The same applies, my beloved brothers and sisters, to the heart. If you don’t give your heart the amount of dhikr of Allah that it needs, the heart will dehydrate. The heart will suffer. And then what happens is, just like your body, when it’s not given the amount of water it needs, it dehydrates—the heart will also feel the same. And just as your body starts to react to the absence of water—like headaches, migraines, and all the other things that happen to you—the heart reacts the same way. What happens to the heart is that it starts to become sad, distressed, depressed, and even suicidal. All of that is due to the absence of the remembrance of Allah.
And Allah Ta'āla says in the Qur’an: أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ Take in this verse—remembering Allah brings tranquility to the heart. You feel at ease. You feel relaxed. Even though the problems around you still exist, inside, you are in a state of comfort. You would never think about suicide. You wouldn’t. And the overwhelming majority of people who are suicidal, who are on antidepressant pills—the overwhelming majority—if you investigate and ask, you will tend to find that the remembrance of Allah is what the heart is yearning for. Give the heart what it wants. Don’t give your heart these chemicals that it doesn’t want and doesn’t need.
Brothers and sisters, when you don’t give the heart the remembrance of Allah that it requires and needs, it starts to dehydrate, and your actions—your production level—reduce. You’re not able to do much. People who are depressed—what do they do? They stay in bed. They don’t come out. They lock themselves in their room. They don’t want to see people. Why? Because they’re not in a good place. Their heart is depressed. Anxiety, panic attacks—all of that. All of it is due to the absence of the remembrance of Allah.
Allah says: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ ذِكْرًا كَثِيرًا "O you who believe, remember Allah a lot."
Those of you who claim īmān, those of you who believe in Allah and the Day of Judgment—اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ—remember Allah. A little bit? Sometimes, here or there? No. اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ ذِكْرًا كَثِيرًا—"Remember Allah a lot." وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكْرَةً وَأَصِيلًا—"And exalt Him Subḥānahu wa Ta'āla."
The opposite of the remembrance of Allah, brothers and sisters, is al-ghaflah—heedlessness. What is heedlessness? جَمْهَرَةٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ—a large number of scholars said that ghaflah is:
- ظُلْمَةٌ تَكُونُ فِي الْقَلْبِ—"It’s a darkness that is placed on the heart."
- وَوَحْشَةٌ تَكُونُ فِي الصَّدْرِ—"And it’s the loneliness that a person feels inside."
- وَنَكَدٌ يَكُونُ فِي الْعَيْشِ—"And it’s the hardship that you feel in this life."
You think everybody is out there to get you. So you run away from everybody. You want to be alone. You don’t trust anybody. You’re on edge all the time. All of that, brothers and sisters, is because of the absence of the remembrance of Allah.
Give the heart what it wants, brother. Give the heart what it wants, sister. And you’ll be so productive. You’ll be an effective person in the community.
The Prophet ﷺ said: مَثَلُ الَّذِي يَذْكُرُ رَبَّهُ وَالَّذِي لَا يَذْكُرُ رَبَّهُ كَمَثَلِ الحَيِّ وَالْمَيِّتِ "The example of the one who remembers his Lord and the one who does not remember his Lord is like the example of the living and the dead."
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah summarized it beautifully. He said: "The remembrance of Allah for the human body, for the human heart, for the human mind, is like water for the fish."
How will a fish survive without water? It won’t. It will die. You are like that, brothers and sisters. If you are taken out of the remembrance of Allah—if you don’t read your adhkār, if you don’t do your dhikr when entering your house, leaving your house, before sleeping, upon waking, putting your clothes on, taking your clothes off—you are vulnerable. You are without a fortress.
The author of Fortress of a Muslim named it "fortress" because of the famous hadith that dhikr is like a fortress. It protects you from everything.
So brothers and sisters, the remembrance of Allah Subḥānahu wa Ta'āla brings self-motivation, tranquility, and happiness. It removes distress, sadness, and depression.
Take this from me today, in shā’ Allāh—when someone says something evil about you, do the following: exalt Allah, praise Him, send salutations upon the Messenger ﷺ, and you will see how you become.
I will stop here, in shā’ Allāh. Any mistakes, shortcomings, faults, or errors that you have seen in this lecture are from me and Shayṭān. Allah and His Messenger are free from them.
سُبْحَانَكَ اللَّهُمَّ وَبِحَمْدِكَ، أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ، أَسْتَغْفِرُكَ وَأَتُوبُ إِلَيْكَ.
