4/ The Virtue of Gatherings of Remembrance

We have already touched briefly upon some of the benefits of remembrance. They are too numerous to count and too abundant to enumerate. Those who seek to tally them are incapable of doing so; no human being can fully comprehend them, nor can any tongue adequately express them. How could it be otherwise, when remembrance is among the noblest means of drawing close to Allah and the finest acts of obedience? How many abundant benefits, ripe fruits, delightful harvests, enduring yields, and lasting blessings remembrance brings in this world and the Hereafter!

Gatherings of remembrance are the purest, noblest, most beneficial, and loftiest of gatherings. They are the gatherings of the highest worth and greatest standing before Allah.

Many texts have been transmitted concerning the virtue of gatherings of remembrance, affirming that they bring life to hearts, growth to faith, and righteousness and purity to the servant. This is in contrast to gatherings of heedlessness: those who attend them rise only with diminished faith and weakened hearts, and they become a source of grief and regret for them.

The righteous early generations—may Allah have mercy upon them—attached the greatest importance to these gatherings and devoted the utmost care to them. Abdullah ibn Rawāhah—may Allah be pleased with him—would take a group of his companions by the hand and say, “Come, let us believe for a while. Come, let us remember Allah and increase in faith through obedience to Him, so that He may remember us with forgiveness.”

Umayr ibn Habīb al-Khatmī—may Allah be pleased with him—would say, “Faith increases and decreases.” He was asked, “What causes it to increase and decrease?” He replied, “When we remember Allah, Mighty and Majestic, praise Him, and glorify Him, that is its increase; and when we are heedless, neglectful, and forgetful, that is its