Remember to Remember

Remember to Remember

The Names, Remembered in Breath

For the Sufi, the Attributes of Allah

are not there to be collected,
nor to be memorized and stored in the mind.

They are there to be remembered in breath.

To be lived.

To be carried quietly in every moment,
as one carries a presence without speaking of it.

The Names are not distant.

They are near.

Not as concepts,
But as qualities we learn to recognize,
within ourselves,
within others,
within all that is created.

Exoterically and esoterically.

Seen and unseen.

To remember them is not just to repeat them.

It is to work with them.

To let them shape the way we see,
the way we respond,
the way we exist.

Little by little,
We draw closer, not to the words themselves,
but to what they point toward.

Their essence.

As we move toward our hopes,
our wishes,
our aspirations

We move, without knowing it,
toward Him.

In this path, love is not a feeling.

It is a direction.

To love
is already to be loved.

To seek His closeness
is already to stand within His presence.

To accept what is given
is not resignation.

It is trust.

To embrace what comes
is to recognize that what is given
It is never empty.

It carries meaning,
even when we do not yet see it.

And so, heaven is not only promised.

It is tasted.

In moments of clarity.
In moments of gratitude.
In moments where the heart is at rest.

Our deeds may carry us step by step,
toward a reward,
toward a moment,
toward a measure of happiness.

But love,

maḥabbat,

does not move step by step.

It carries.

And perhaps this is the essence:

That life, in its deepest form,
is nothing but

the love of the Beloved
returning to the Beloved.

By Hamid Mernissi