Dhikr

Dhikr (Zikr in Urdu and Zekr in Persian) (Arabic "pronouncement", "invocation" or "remembrance") is the remembrance of God commanded in the Qur'an for all Muslims. To engage in dhikr is to have awareness of God according to Islam. Dhikr as a devotional act includes the repetition of divine names, supplications and aphorisms from hadith literature, and sections of the Qur'an. More generally, any activity in which the Muslim maintains awareness of God is considered dhikr. Dhikr is also spelled zikr based on its pronunciation in Turkish, Persian, and Urdu.