The Root
Commemorating God
Given as a purpose, not a chore: to come ever closer and closer to Him.
You shall commemorate the name of your Lord, to come ever closer and closer to Him.
[73:8]God tells us what remembering Him is for, and it is not what most people assume: “You shall commemorate the name of your Lord, to come ever closer and closer to Him.” [73:8]
Closer. The commandment carries its own reason, and the reason is about distance, not about duty.
This page is about that. What the remembering is for. The names He gave us to call Him by. The prayers already written in the book. And what all of it looks like on an ordinary Tuesday.
On This Page
Four parts, and the questions people ask after each one.
What the Remembering Is For
Take the reason first, because everything else follows from it.
Remembering God is commanded, and the command carries its purpose in the same breath: “You shall commemorate the name of your Lord, to come ever closer and closer to Him.” [73:8]
What it does to the person doing it is stated more plainly still. God names two things by which a person redeems his own soul, and remembrance is the first: “Successful indeed is the one who redeems his soul. By remembering the name of his Lord, and observing the contact prayers (Salat).” [87:14-15]
There is a promise attached too, and it runs both ways: “You shall remember Me, that I may remember you, and be thankful to Me; do not be unappreciative.” [2:152]
We remember Him, and He remembers us. That is the whole exchange, in one line.
What It Does to a Heart
God describes the effect instead of promising it vaguely, and He says it twice in one verse: “They are the ones whose hearts rejoice in remembering GOD. Absolutely, by remembering GOD, the hearts rejoice.” [13:28]
He also describes a heart that has already been reached: “The true believers are those whose hearts tremble when GOD is mentioned, and when His revelations are recited to them, their faith is strengthened, and they trust in their Lord.” [8:2]
It is on the list of what He rewards, with men and women named separately: “the men who commemorate GOD frequently, and the commemorating women; GOD has prepared for them forgiveness and a great recompense.” [33:35]
Why the Prayer Exists at All
Here is the part that reorders everything. The Contact Prayers are not one duty and remembrance another.
God gives the prayer's purpose in His own voice, at the moment He identifies Himself to Moses: “I am GOD; there is no other god beside Me. You shall worship Me alone, and observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) to remember Me.” [20:14]
He says it again elsewhere, and ranks it: “observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), for the Contact Prayers prohibit evil and vice. But the remembrance of GOD (through Salat) is the most important objective.” [29:45]
Which is why the command does not stop when the prayer does: “Once you complete your Contact Prayer (Salat), you shall remember GOD while standing, sitting, or lying down.” [4:103] The prayer ends. The remembering does not.
Questions About Remembrance
What is commemorating God actually for?
For getting closer to Him. God attaches the purpose to the command: “You shall commemorate the name of your Lord, to come ever closer and closer to Him.” [73:8] He also names it as the way a soul is redeemed: “Successful indeed is the one who redeems his soul. By remembering the name of his Lord, and observing the contact prayers (Salat).” [87:14-15] And He makes it an exchange: “You shall remember Me, that I may remember you.” [2:152] None of that is about paying a debt. It is about closing a distance.
What does commemorating God look like during a working day?
Mostly small and quiet, which is how God describes it: “You shall remember your Lord within yourself, publicly, privately, and quietly, day and night; do not be unaware.” [7:205] In practice it is a handful of habits. Saying “GOD willing” about anything we plan to do, which He commands directly [18:23-24]. Saying His name over our food [6:118]. Turning to Him when a bad thought arrives [7:200]. And the prayers hold the rest of the day together. They were decreed so that we would remember Him.
Does God need to be remembered?
No. Nothing we say adds anything to Him. God says everything already glorifies Him: “Glorifying Him is everything in the heavens and the earth.” [59:24] The universe does not wait for us to join in. The benefit runs our way. He says what remembrance does to us — “by remembering GOD, the hearts rejoice” [13:28] — and what it is for: coming closer to Him [73:8]. He is offering a distance closed, not asking for applause.
The Names He Gave Us
If remembrance is calling on Him, the next question is what to call Him.
God answers it and attaches two instructions at once: “To GOD belongs the most beautiful names; call upon Him therewith, and disregard those who distort His names. They will be requited for their sins.” [7:180]
Use them, and leave alone the people who bend them out of shape. Both halves are commands.
On which name to use, God is more generous than people expect: “Say, ‘Call Him GOD, or call Him Most Gracious; whichever name you use, to Him belongs the best names.’” [17:110] The same verse settles the volume too: not too loudly, not secretly, a moderate tone.
Three Verses, and a Run of Names
One passage simply lists them. Reading it slowly is itself the practice this page is about.
“He is the One GOD; there is no other god besides Him. Knower of all secrets and declarations. He is the Most Gracious, Most Merciful.” [59:22]
“He is the One GOD; there is no other god besides Him. The King, the Most Sacred, the Peace, the Most Faithful, the Supreme, the Almighty, the Most Powerful, the Most Dignified. GOD be glorified; far above having partners.” [59:23]
“He is the One GOD; the Creator, the Initiator, the Designer. To Him belong the most beautiful names. Glorifying Him is everything in the heavens and the earth. He is the Almighty, Most Wise.” [59:24]
Each of the three opens the same way. Two of them shut the door in the opening line, and the middle one closes it again at the end: “GOD be glorified; far above having partners.” [59:23] The names are not decoration. They come fenced.
Some of the Names, and When They Land
Each name is one God gave Himself. The second line is our own suggestion of when it helps most.
The Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Named together, and they open every sura but one. The pair most of us meet first, and the pair to reach for in a hard week.
[59:22]
The Peace
Set among the names in one verse with the King, the Most Sacred and the Most Faithful. A name to say when there is no peace anywhere else.
[59:23]
The Living, the Eternal
“Never a moment of unawareness or slumber overtakes Him.” [2:255] For the hours when it feels as though nobody is awake.
[2:255]
The Creator, the Initiator, the Designer
Three names in one verse for three parts of one act. Bringing into being, starting from nothing, and shaping what results.
[59:24]
Knower of all secrets and declarations
What is said out loud and what is never said, known equally. A name for the thing nobody else has been told.
[59:22]
The Forgiver, Most Merciful
“O My servants who exceeded the limits, never despair of GOD's mercy. For GOD forgives all sins. He is the Forgiver, Most Merciful.” [39:53]
[39:53]
The Name With Nothing Added
One thing belongs here, because it is the point of this whole section.
However many names there are, one thing is a test. What happens in us when the name is said on its own.
“When GOD ALONE is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter shrink with aversion. But when others are mentioned beside Him, they become satisfied.” [39:45]
So the names are many, and the One they belong to is one. Calling Him by a different name is invited. Calling on anyone else is the thing the whole book is against.
Questions About the Names
Which name should we use when we call on Him?
Any of them. God says so plainly: “Call Him GOD, or call Him Most Gracious; whichever name you use, to Him belongs the best names.” [17:110] The instruction is to use them: “To GOD belongs the most beautiful names; call upon Him therewith.” [7:180] What matters is that nothing is added beside Him. That is the test in 39:45, and it is the only condition the Quran puts on the calling.
What does it mean to distort God's names?
It means bending a name out of the shape God gave it. He tells us to leave such people alone. The instruction comes with the invitation: “call upon Him therewith, and disregard those who distort His names. They will be requited for their sins.” [7:180] The clearest case is a name given to someone else, or a name of His hung on a created being. God also warns about names people invented for themselves: “These are but names that you made up, you and your forefathers. GOD never authorized such a blasphemy.” [53:23]
Is there a right number of times to say God's name?
No number is given, and the Quran does not ask for a count. What it asks for is often and everywhere: “You shall remember your Lord within yourself, publicly, privately, and quietly, day and night; do not be unaware.” [7:205] And elsewhere, simply frequently [33:35]. God does set the tone, though: “You shall not utter your Contact Prayers (Salat) too loudly, nor secretly; use a moderate tone.” [17:110] Counting beads is nobody's instruction in this book. Not being unaware is.
The Prayers Already Written
Most people who want to pray get stuck at the same place. They do not know what to say.
The Quran answers that by containing the prayers themselves. Dozens of them, said by prophets and by ordinary believers, quoted in full and left there to be used.
We are not confined to them. They wait there for the times when nothing comes.
The one everybody knows is the Opening, and it is a prayer, not a statement: “You alone we worship; You alone we ask for help.” [1:5]
A Prayer for the Occasion
Every one of these is in the Quran, said by someone who needed it.
When we want the right things
“Our Lord, grant us righteousness in this world, and righteousness in the Hereafter, and spare us the retribution of Hell.” [2:201] The verse before it is the one that asks only for this world.
[2:201]
When we are afraid of our own failings
“Our Lord, do not condemn us if we forget or make mistakes... Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our Lord and Master.” [2:286]
[2:286]
When certainty is slipping
“Our Lord, let not our hearts waver, now that You have guided us. Shower us with Your mercy; You are the Grantor.” [3:8]
[3:8]
For our parents
“My Lord, have mercy on them, for they have raised me from infancy.” [17:24] The same verse opens by telling us to lower for them the wing of humility.
[17:24]
For our family
“Our Lord, let our spouses and children be a source of joy for us, and keep us in the forefront of the righteous.” [25:74]
[25:74]
When we have to face something
Moses, told to go before Pharaoh: “My Lord, cool my temper. And make this matter easy for me. And untie a knot from my tongue. So they can understand my speech.” [20:25-28]
[20:25-28]
When we have wronged ourselves
“Our Lord, we have wronged our souls, and unless You forgive us and have mercy on us, we will be losers.” [7:23] Adam's words, and still the shortest way back.
[7:23]
At forty, and after
“My Lord, direct me to appreciate the blessings You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do the righteous works that please You. Let my children be righteous as well.” [46:15]
[46:15]
And the Promise That Comes With Them
A book full of prayers would be a cruel thing if nobody were listening. God does not leave that hanging.
He answers it Himself, in the first person, in the middle of a passage about fasting: “When My servants ask you about Me, I am always near. I answer their prayers when they pray to Me.” [2:186]
He puts it as a command elsewhere, which is a generous thing to command: “Your Lord says, ‘Implore Me, and I will respond to you. Surely, those who are too arrogant to worship Me will enter Gehenna, forcibly.’” [40:60] Asking is not optional.
And there is nobody in the middle of it. Every prayer above is said straight to God by the person saying it. A prophet, a parent, someone who has just failed. None of them goes through anyone.
Questions About Praying
What should we actually say when we pray?
Our own words are fine, and the Quran also hands us prayers to use when nothing comes. The book is full of them. A prayer for the right things [2:201], for our parents [17:24], and one for the moment we have to face something hard [20:25-28]. They were said by prophets and by ordinary people, and the cards above collect them. The Contact Prayers have their own fixed words, which the Contact Prayers page sets out. Everything outside them is open. God says: “Implore Me, and I will respond to you.” [40:60]
Can we pray for other people, and for people who have died?
For the living, yes, and the Quran is full of examples. For those who died without believing, no. Believers pray for each other in the book. Abraham asks for “my parents, and the believers, on the day when the reckoning takes place” [14:41], and elsewhere we are given prayers for our parents [17:24] and our families [25:74]. The limit is set at idol worship. God says the prophet and the believers must not ask forgiveness for idol worshippers, even their nearest of kin, “once they realize that they are destined for Hell” [9:113].
How do we know a prayer is heard?
Because God says so in His own voice, and He says it without conditions about the person asking. He says: “When My servants ask you about Me, I am always near. I answer their prayers when they pray to Me.” [2:186] And again: “Implore Me, and I will respond to you.” [40:60] An answer is not always the thing we asked for. God says plainly that we can want what is bad for us: “But you may dislike something which is good for you, and you may like something which is bad for you.” [2:216] What is promised is a response, and He decides its shape.
Through an Ordinary Day
None of this needs a different life. God sets remembrance inside the day we already have, and He is unusually specific about where.
The frame is the two ends of it: “you shall glorify GOD when you retire at night, and when you rise in the morning.” [30:17]
The manner is given four ways at once: “You shall remember your Lord within yourself, publicly, privately, and quietly, day and night; do not be unaware.” [7:205]
Within ourselves and publicly, in one sentence. So it is neither a private thing to be hidden nor a public thing to be performed. The last clause is the only prohibition in the verse: do not be unaware.
The Small Commandments Most People Skip
Two instructions are small enough to miss and specific enough to start with tomorrow.
The first is about how we talk about the future: “You shall not say that you will do anything in the future, without saying, ‘GOD willing.’ If you forget to do this, you must immediately remember your Lord and say, ‘May my Lord guide me to do better next time.’” [18:23-24] The footnote says this commandment gives us daily chances to remember God.
The second is about food: “You shall eat from that upon which GOD's name has been pronounced, if you truly believe in His revelations.” [6:118] Every meal, and there are several a day.
And one is for when something goes wrong inside us: “When the devil whispers to you any whisper, seek refuge in GOD; He is Hearer, Omniscient.” [7:200] The verse after describes what that does: “whenever the devil approaches them with an idea, they remember, whereupon they become seers.” [7:201]
What Competes For It
God names the competition, and it is not quite what we expect.
Work is not the enemy, though there is one hour it must give way to: “when the Congregational Prayer (Salat Al-Jumu'ah) is announced on Friday, you shall hasten to the commemoration of GOD, and drop all business.” [62:9]
Once that hour is done, the permission is broad: “Once the prayer is completed, you may spread through the land to seek GOD's bounties, and continue to remember GOD frequently, that you may succeed.” [62:10]
What God does warn about is nearer home: “O you who believe, do not be distracted by your money and your children from remembering GOD. Those who do this are the losers.” [63:9] Money and children. The two things nobody feels guilty about giving everything to.
And He sets the measure in the homeliest terms the book uses, at the close of the pilgrimage: “you shall continue to commemorate GOD as you commemorate your own parents, or even better.” [2:200]
And What Does Not Count
It would be dishonest to end this page without the warning attached to it. The failure God names is not forgetting.
“And woe to those who observe the contact prayers (Salat)— who are totally heedless of their prayers. They only show off. And they forbid charity.” [107:4-7]
Woe to people who are praying. The prayers are happening. The person is not there.
The same picture comes again with the inside described: “When they get up for the Contact Prayer (Salat), they get up lazily. That is because they only show off in front of the people, and rarely do they think of GOD.” [4:142]
Set against that, God's picture of the real thing is the opposite in every detail. Done quietly, within ourselves, when nobody is counting [7:205]. By people who “reverence their Lord, even when alone in their privacy” [21:49].
So the question at the end of this page is whether anyone is home when the words are said.
Questions About the Daily Practice
How do we remember God when work takes all our attention?
By attaching the remembering to things we already do, which is what the Quran does. God ties it to speech about the future [18:23-24], to food [6:118], and to both ends of the day [30:17]. None of that asks for extra time. Work itself is not the problem. God tells us to go and seek His bounties once the Friday prayer is done, and to “continue to remember GOD frequently” while we do [62:10]. What He warns against is letting money and family crowd Him out.
What do we do when we forget for days at a time?
Start again at the next opportunity. Forgetting is treated as ordinary, and the remedy is given inside the commandment. God builds it into the “GOD willing” instruction: “If you forget to do this, you must immediately remember your Lord and say, ‘May my Lord guide me to do better next time.’” [18:24] Forgetting is expected, and the response is one sentence. Believers are not described as people who never lapse. They fall, remember God, ask forgiveness, “and they do not persist in sins, knowingly” [3:135].
Is saying the words enough?
No, and this is the warning the Quran attaches to the whole subject. God pronounces woe on people who are actually praying: “who are totally heedless of their prayers. They only show off.” [107:5-6] The words were said. Nobody was home. What He describes instead is quiet and unwitnessed: remembrance “within yourself... privately, and quietly” [7:205], by people who “reverence their Lord, even when alone in their privacy” [21:49]. What is being asked for is presence, not a count.
What the Quran Says About Remembering God
The verses this page rests on, in one place.
You shall commemorate the name of your Lord, to come ever closer and closer to Him.[73:8]
The purpose, stated outright.
Successful indeed is the one who redeems his soul. By remembering the name of his Lord, and observing the contact prayers (Salat).[87:14-15]
How a soul is redeemed.
You shall remember Me, that I may remember you, and be thankful to Me; do not be unappreciative.[2:152]
We remember Him, He remembers us.
They are the ones whose hearts rejoice in remembering GOD. Absolutely, by remembering GOD, the hearts rejoice.[13:28]
Said twice in one verse.
"I am GOD; there is no other god beside Me. You shall worship Me alone, and observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) to remember Me.[20:14]
Why the Contact Prayers exist at all.
You shall remember your Lord within yourself, publicly, privately, and quietly, day and night; do not be unaware.[7:205]
Four ways, and one prohibition.
When My servants ask you about Me, I am always near. I answer their prayers when they pray to Me. The people shall respond to Me and believe in Me, in order to be guided.[2:186]
In His own voice: I answer.
And woe to those who observe the contact prayers (Salat)— who are totally heedless of their prayers. They only show off. And they forbid charity.[107:4-7]
The warning, aimed at people who are praying.
Growth Prompt
Most of us go hours without one conscious thought of God. Try this for a week. Pick three things we already do every day — a glass of water, a doorway, the phone ringing — and say His name each time. The Quran attaches remembrance to ordinary acts in exactly this way [18:24], [6:118].
How often did I think of God yesterday outside of prayer, and where did the gaps fall?
Keep growing
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