Many Quranic verses and hadiths have emphasized the importance of zikir and instructed Muslims to remember God, whose reality encompasses and pervades both the unmanifest and manifested worlds (aalm el-ghaib and aalm el-shahadah). However, unlike other forms of worshiping God in Islam, no specific form has been set for performing zikir. Allah (SWT) commended those who remember Him under all circumstances and states: "Those who remember Allah while standing, sitting, on their sides and think about the wonders of His creation" (3:191). Sufis have developed the command to perform zikir into the quintessential practice in its silent and vocal form.

An inherent predicament of zikir, however, is the difficulty in remembering God when one has little or no awareness of Him. To start with, Sufis begin their wird with the repetition of one of God's ninety-nine names: a name such as "Allah" which is often called the "comprehensive" name (al-ism al-mufrad) and (al-ism al-jami'). The repetition of the tongue descends and becomes remembrance of the heart. Finally, the remembrance of the heart deepens and becomes the remembrance of the soul.


The name "Allah" is comprehensive in the sense that it comprises all of the infinite names of God, which refer to the source of the awareness of all of reality. In down to earth terms, the ultimate source of one's awareness of the words on this page, for example, is the reality of one of the names of God, all of which are encompassed by the name Allah. In short, the source of one's present awareness--whatever that awareness may be--is encompassed by the name Allah. Thus, remembering God can begin quite simply and ordinarily with the awareness of two things: one's present awareness and the name Allah--even when one has no awareness of the reality to which the name Allah refers.


A great Sheikh was once talking on the remembrance of God and awareness of Him and said: "Finding the way to God is painfully hard. You cannot find God without passing beyond your own being. A Sufi does not become a Sufi by sitting on a prayer mat. The darwish way is not just the donning of a special turban and cloak. A Sufi is one who annihilates himself in the Truth, one whose heart is purified. The Sufi is someone who needs neither the sun by day nor the moon by night. For the Sufi is one who walks night and day by the Light of Truth Sufism is poverty that can dispense with property.


In the Mokashfiya zawya in Omdurman, congregational zikir is a biweekly event. It takes place Friday after Asr (afternoon) prayers and Sunday after Isha (evening) Prayers under the guidance of Sidi Sheikh El-Amin or his khalifa Murtada. The benefit of this biweekly event is twofold. The first is the performance of zikir, a form of worship which Muslims have been enticed to perform, and the second is that it is being done in an assembly.