The objective of dhikr and of the dhikr that you have just done is if you like, a loosening up or a shaking off of our ideas of who we are, of our chains. It is about re-orientating oneself to the Lord, to Allah.

The natural order for the human being is disturbance and disquiet. The state of the heart outside of dhikr is one of agitation. It is with the dhikr of Allah that the heart becomes tranquil.

Why do we keep on deluding ourselves and taking ourselves away from that which is real and that which is present and precious to that which is illusory? Why do we only wait for death to come near before we say and do what is needed, and resolve what needs to be resolved?

We have two ways of using our attention. Is there any difference to the feeling in the statements, "He's looking at me" and "He's listening to me"? For most people there's a difference.

The immediate benefit of hadra is twofold. The one is the silencing of internal dialogue and the second is the shifting of attention or if you like the assemblage point of attention from behind your eyeballs to behind your solar plexus. These are the two immediate physiological attributes of a good hadra. That's what hadra...