Jurayj, he was commanded to remember Him inwardly, with humble entreaty and submission, without raising his voice or shouting. The hadith of Abū Mūsā has already been cited:
“We were travelling with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and we raised our voices in proclaiming Allah’s greatness. He said: ‘O people, be easy on yourselves! You are not calling upon one who is deaf or absent. You are calling upon One who hears and is near, closer to each of you than the neck of his mount.’”
Consider how He says in the verse concerning remembrance, “And remember your Lord within yourself, in humility and fear,” and in the verse concerning supplication, “Call upon your Lord in humility and in secret” [7:55]. He mentions humility in both: lowliness, meekness, and a broken spirit before Him. This is the very soul of remembrance and supplication. He specifically associates supplication with secrecy because of the wisdom we have mentioned, among other reasons. He specifically associates remembrance with fear because the one remembering Him needs fear: remembrance necessarily entails love and brings it forth. Whoever frequently remembers Allah will thereby come to love Him. Yet unless love is accompanied by fear, it does not benefit a person and may even harm him, for it breeds presumptuous familiarity and uninhibited ease. Indeed, it has led many ignorant, deluded people to imagine that their love frees them from religious obligations. They say:
“The sole purpose of acts of worship is the heart’s worship, its turning to Allah, its love for Him, and its worshipful devotion to Him. Once that purpose has been attained, occupying oneself with the means is futile.”
A man once told me that he had reproached one of these people for entering a retreat during which he failed to attend the Friday prayer. The shaykh said to him, “Do not the jurists say that if someone fears losing some of his property, he is excused from attending the Friday prayer?”
He replied, “Yes.”
The shaykh said, “The spiritual disciple’s heart is dearer to him than the loss of ten dirhams”—or words to that effect. “If he goes out, his heart will be lost. Preserving his heart is therefore an excuse that exempts him from the Friday prayer.”
The man replied, “This is self-deception. Rather, he must go out to fulfil Allah’s command while keeping his heart attentive to Allah. A knowledgeable shaykh who nurtures his disciple tells him to go out and fulfil the command while taking care to preserve his heart”—or words to that effect.
Consider this tremendous self-deception and how it has led these people to cast off Islam altogether. Whoever follows this path sheds Islam in its general sense as a snake sheds its skin, while imagining himself to be among the elite of the elite. The reason for this is the failure to combine fear of