فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُواْ لِي وَلاَ تَكْفُرُونِ

Remember Me - I will remember you.

Give thanks to Me and do not be ungrateful. [Surah al-Baqarah 2:152]

Remember Me – I will remember you

Allāh’s remembering of us signifies reward. The root meaning of the word for remembering (dhikr) is to be aware with the heart of what is remembered and awake to it. Dhikr with the tongue is called dhikr because it indicates the remembrance of the heart. It is often used, however, with reference to the spoken words and phrases employed in its performance.

The āyah means: “Remember Me by obeying Me and I will remember you with the reward and forgiveness”, as Sa’īd ibn Jubayr said. He also said, “Dhikr is obeying Allāh. Anyone who does not obey Him does not remember Him, even if he does a lot of glorification, shahāda and recitation of the Qur’ān.” It is related that the Prophet (Sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa Sallam), said, “Anyone who obeys Allāh has remembered Allāh, even if he has not done much prayer, fasting, or good action. Anyone who disobeys Allāh has forgotten Allāh, even if he has done a lot of prayer, fasting and good action.” As-SuddÄ« said, “A person does not remember Allāh without Allāh remembering Him. A believer does not remember Allāh without Allāh remembering him with mercy. An unbeliever does not remember Allāh without Allāh remembering him with the punishment.”

Someone said to Abū ‘Uthmān an-Nahdī, “We remember Allāh but we do not experience any sweetness in our hearts.” He said, “Praise Allāh Almighty for the fact that He has adorned one of your limbs with obedience!” Dhūn-Nūn al-Misrī said, ‘Anyone who really remembers Allāh, forgets everything except His remembrance and Allāh preserves him from every bad thing and is His redress for everything.” Mu’ādh ibn Jabal said, “The son of ādam does not do any action which will be more effective in saving him from the punishment of Allāh than dhikr of Allāh.”

There are many ahādÄ«th on the virtue of dhikr and its reward. Ibn Mājah reports from ‘Abdullāh ibn YÅ«suf that a Bedouin told the Messenger of Allāh (Sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa Sallam), “The laws of Islām are a lot for me. Tell me something on which I can really concentrate my efforts.” He said, “Let your tongue remain moist with the remembrance of Allāh Almighty.” It is transmitted that AbÅ« Hurayrah, may Allāh bless him and grant him peace, said, “Allāh Almighty says, ‘I am with my slave when he remembers Me and moves his lips with My Name.’”

Give thanks to Me

Thankfulness (shukr) is to acknowledge kindness received and to speak of it. The linguistic root of shukr means “to display”. So Allāh’s slave shows his thankfulness by mentioning Allāh’s goodness to Him and the Real thanks the slave by praising him for obeying Him.

and do not be ungrateful

Do not be ungrateful for Allāh’s blessings. The word kufr here means to cover up the blessing, not total disbelief.

[Tafsir al-Qurtubi: Translated by Aisha Bewley]