For loudness means forceful projection of the voice: one speaks of a man with a booming voice or a loud-voiced man. The same applies to Ā’ishah’s statement concerning supplication, for Allah Most High says:

“Call upon your Lord humbly and secretly.”

And He says:

“When he called upon his Lord in a quiet call.”

A quiet utterance may still be audible to someone nearby; this is speaking in confidence, whereas speaking loudly is like calling out in its unqualified sense. Likewise, when his Companions raised their voices proclaiming Allah’s greatness, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“O people, be gentle with yourselves! You are not calling upon one who is deaf or absent. You are calling upon One who hears and is near. The One you call upon is nearer to each of you than the neck of his mount.”

A parallel to His words, “And remember your Lord within yourself,” is the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, reporting from his Lord:

“Whoever remembers Me within himself, I remember him within Myself; and whoever remembers Me in an assembly, I remember him in an assembly better than it.”

This includes remembering Him privately with the tongue, for He contrasts it with remembrance in an assembly. It parallels His words, “Without speaking loudly.” The evidence for this is that He says, “Morning and evening.” It is well known that the remembrance of Allah prescribed morning and evening, both within prayer and outside it, involves the tongue together with the heart. Examples include the dawn and afternoon prayers, the remembrance prescribed after these two prayers, and the transmitted formulas of remembrance and supplication that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, enjoined, taught, and practised as prescribed daily and nightly devotions