The heart now arrives at the station of remembrance, which is a companion to that of oft-returning. Allah the Most High says: “And none remembers except he who returns penitently” [40:13]; and He said, “[Allah’s signs are] an eye-opener and a remembrance for any servant who returns penitently” [50:8]; and such a one is among the elite of the wise, “Only those remember who have wisdom” [2:269].
Remembrance and contemplation are two stations that give fruition to many kinds of knowledge, realities of faith, and bliss. The knower returns with [the fruit of] his contemplation to his remembrance, and with [the fruit of] his remembrance to his contemplation, until the lock on his heart is opened by the leave of the Opener, the All-knowing. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said, “The people of knowledge return with remembrance to contemplation, and with contemplation to remembrance, and talk to their hearts until they begin to respond.”
The author of al-Manāzil, Allah have mercy on him, said,
“Remembrance is higher in rank than contemplation, for contemplation is the search, and remembrance is the finding.”
He means that contemplation is to seek what is desired from its basic sources, as he said, “Contemplation is to seek insight in order to attain the goal.” As for his saying that “remembrance is the finding,” it means that [remembrance] involves reclaiming what has been already acquired through contemplation but has disappeared due to forgetting, and so when he remembers it, he finds it successfully.
[The Arabic for remembrance, tadhakkur,] is the tafaʿul form of the root dh-k-r, which is the opposite of forgetting, and it connotes recalling into the heart the image of the knowledge being remembered. The form tafaʿul has been employed because it is attained through time and effort, gradually, like tabaṣṣur (gaining insight), tafahhum (acquiring understanding), and taʿallum (acquiring knowledge).
The relation of remembrance to contemplation is like the relation of attaining a thing to searching for it. This is why the signs of Allah, both the recited and witnessed ones, are reminders. Of the recited signs, Allah says, “And we surely gave Moses the guidance and passed on the Book to the Children of Israel—as guidance and remembrance for the wise” [40:53–54]. He said referring to the Qurʾan, “And it is indeed a reminder for the pious” [69:48].
Of the witnessed signs, Allah said, “Did they not look at the heavens above them, how We created them and beautified them—there are no faults in them; and the earth that We spread out and placed thereon mountains standing firm, and produced therein every kind of beautiful growth in pairs. A spectacle and a reminder to every oft-returning servant” [50:6–8]
Observation is a function of sight, and reminder a function of memory; the two are mentioned [in this verse] in parallel, and their benefit is made exclusive for the penitent oft-returning. For when one returns to Allah contritely, one begins to recognize the occasions of signs and lessons and discovers their meanings. Thus, evasion is removed for him by his penitence, blindness by his seeing of the signs, and heedlessness by remembrance. Looking [at the signs] ensures for him the attainment of the image in his heart of what they are pointing to, after he had become heedless of them. Thus, the three stations have been arranged in the best way [in this verse], each one extending its previous one, strength- ening it, and bringing out its fruit.
As regards the witnessed signs, Allah says: “But how many generations before them did We destroy (for their sins), stronger in power than they? Have they, then, wandered through the land: was there any place of escape (for them)? Verily in this is a reminder for any who has a heart and understanding, or who gives ear and earnestly witnesses.” [50:37]
There are three kinds of people: one whose heart is dead; this verse does not serve as remembrance for him. Second, one who has an alive, awakened heart, but he is not receptive to the recited signs through which [Allah] points him toward the witnessed signs. This [lack of receptivity] could be because either these signs never reached him, or these signs did reach him but his heart was distracted by other things. His heart, therefore, is absent, not attentive. This one also does not receive reminder, despite his readiness and possession of a heart.
Third, one who has a live and ready heart, and when signs are recited to him, he heeds them, gives his ear and opens his heart, and does not deal with it without understanding what he hears; rather, his heart is engaged with it to the exclusion of anything else. It is this third kind of person with an attentive heart who benefits from the reminders or signs of both kinds—the recited as well as the witnessed ones.
The first is like a blind person who cannot see at all. The second one is like a person with sound eyesight but is looking away. Both of [these two kinds] do not see it.
The third person is one whose eyesight is sound and who is focused on the right object, and his sight follows and meets it at just the right distance, neither too far nor too close; this is the one who sees. Glory be to Him who has made His words a healing for that which is in the breasts.
If it is said, why has “or” been used with respect to what I have established [as its meaning]? It would be said: In it there is a subtle secret. We do not say that it means “and” as do some externalist grammarians. Know that a man might possess an awakened heart, filled with lessons and wisdom. This is a heart that is likely to chance upon reminders and lessons. When he hears the recited signs, they become for him light upon light—and such are the most perfect of the creation of Allah, greatest in faith and insight, so much so that they almost witness the teachings brought to them by the Messenger without knowing their details and kinds. It has been said that the likeness of the Truth-lover [Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq] with respect to the Prophet ﷺ, is like two men who entered a house. One saw details of things in the house and their particulars, and the other one did not see these details and particulars, but knew that there are great things in it. Upon leaving, he asked him what he saw in the house, and when his companion began to inform him, he confirmed everything because of the clues he had seen. This is the highest level of affir- mation. It is not impossible that Allah the Bounteous would favor a servant with such a faith, for Allah’s grace is beyond any limit or reckoning.
The light of the one who possesses this kind of heart increases as he hears the signs [recited] with the light of insight in his heart. If, however, one does not have a heart of this caliber but still pays heed and his heart does not evade the truth, a reminder occurs to him as well, “And if not a downpour then a drizzle…” [2:265]. This [difference between a] downpour of guidance and a drizzle can be observed in all deeds, in their causes and effects. This is borne out by the fact that even the people of the Garden are of two distinct ranks, those who are the nearest and foremost and [those who are] the people of the right hand; and the difference between these two is well known. So much so that the drink of one of them is the pure drink used only to flavor by mixing the drink of the other kind. Allah the Exalted has said, “And those given knowledge see that what is revealed to you from your Lord is the truth, and it guides to the path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy” [34:6]. Every believer sees these things, but the vision of the people of knowledge is of an entirely different quality than that of the others.
The author of al-Manāzil, Allah have mercy on him, said,
The building blocks of remembrance are three: seeking benefit from admonition, watching out for lessons, and reaping the fruit of contemplation.
“Seeking benefit from admonition” requires that fear and hope strike the heart, motivating it toward action, seeking safety from what is feared and attainment of what is hoped. Admonition is command and prohibition is associated with warning and exhortation. Admonition is attained in two ways, through what is heard and what is witnessed.
Admonition through what is heard is to seek benefit from what one hears of guidance and righteousness, words of advice that have been sent through the messengers, and similarly hearing any counselor and guide concerning the benefits of the religion or this world. Admonition through what is witnessed is to seek benefit from what one sees and witnesses in this world, the vicissitudes and lessons of life, the judgments of divine decree and predestination, and what one observes of Allah’s signs that prove the truth of His messengers.
Watching for lessons is to increase in the insight over and above what one has already attained in the station of contemplation by recalling it. The station of remembrance further polishes the meanings acquired through contemplation at the occasions of signs and lessons. Thus, one acquires them through reflection and they become polished and refined through remembrance. One’s determination to take up the journey strengthens in accordance with his power of insight, for that power brings into clear focus that which incites the yearning. Yearning being a kind of feeling, the more the feeling of the beloved is strengthened, the more the journey of the heart to Him is advanced, and the more one’s thought is engaged with it, the more the feeling is heightened, insight deepened, and remembrance attained.
As for reaping the fruit of contemplation, this is a fine point. Contemplation has two kinds of fruit: the achievement of what is desired (i.e., knowledge) to the extent possible, and action in accordance with it. During contemplation, the intellect was focused on the attainment of what is desired; when those meanings [that one is trying to acquire] have been attained and settled in the heart, the intellect relaxes, and returns to it and remembers and feels joy and rejuvenation, and corrects what it missed at the time of contemplation. For now he observes it from the station of remembrance, which is higher than it, and reaps its fruit, which is to act in accordance with it, attending to its rights. For the righteous deed is the fruit of beneficial knowledge, which is the fruit of contemplation.
If you wish to understand this with a concrete example, [consider this]: A seeker of wealth is tired and exhausted when he is hard at work seeking it, traveling long distances. Once he has attained it, he is relieved from the labor of acquisition, coming back from his trip, he looks over what he has attained, and perhaps fixes what he sees broken that he may have missed while first acquiring it. When it is all fixed, his acquisition cools his eyes, and he begins to use that wealth toward the purposes for which he had sought it.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Madarij al-Salikin Ranks of the Divine Seekers Vol 2 p18-26
honey for the heart 