Very few are aware of Islam’s history with meditation. Heck, even Christians are unaware of their own history of meditation practices by monks, nuns, and saints. Meditation is an ancient practice and might be first recorded on a seal by the Indus valley civilization. It is defiantly not a solely Eastern “mystical” tradition but has been used more commonly in Buddhism as a tool than other religions.

Muhammad (PBUH) used to travel to a cave in Mt. Hira to meditate. Jesus (PBUT) went to the desert ( I totes almost spelled dessert) to fast and meditate; something about deserts and caves. For years Muhammad (PBUH) meditated until he heard a voice. The arch-angel Gabriel’s voice or God’s (depends on how you think about it), and like any normal human being, Muhammad (PBUH) ran. The voice followed him of course, and he had to be calmed down by Khadija. This is one of my favorite stories in Islam because it shows the human aspect of prophethood. Unlike, other prophets in the Bible, who seemingly just accept angels and Gods voice with a little trembling, Muhammad (PBUH) is like “Am I crazy?”. His reaction is one of the reasons I chose Islam as my religion.

Meditation doesn’t end at the first revealation. Muhammad (PBUH) was known to meditate throughout his prophethood. One hadith from him says “An hour of meditation is more valuable than seventy years of worship.”

“An hour of meditation is more valuable than seventy years of worship.”

Muhammad (PBUH)

The Quran mentions to ponder or meditate over the signs of God, the word of God, theology, philosophy, our own faults, science, travel, and etc. Meditation is an essential part of Islamic spiritual practice. A practice, that I feel that many Muslims do not focus on. There are various of different forms of Islamic meditations, practiced mainly by Sufis. Some of these practice have been influenced by South Asian religions like Hinduism. While some developed relatively separate or alongside Buddhism and Hinduism. The entire point of meditation in Islam is to connect to God, and if one does it correctly they become “one” with God.

God in the Islamic sense, is not a man in the sky or a man. I’ll have to do another post on what God is, or I guess what God isn’t. To understand how Muslims practice meditation techniques you have to understand what God is in Islam. God is similar to what Brahman is to Hindus, or what emptiness is to Buddhism. No one resembles God and God resembles nothing. Using the pronoun “He” is just a place holder for God, as God has no gender. In the Quran, God can be referred to as “We”, which can be confusing for those not used to such gender fluid uses. God is beyond our ability to comprehend but yet we are encouraged to understand God through the signs that God gave us. Our whole existence, for Muslims, is to worship and know God.

Mediation is about remembrance and you are supposed to stay connected with God. It, meditation, does not cover the five daily prayers and the five daily prayers or salat can be a way to meditate on God, both acts are not the same thing. Meditation is not a requirement to be Muslim while praying five times a day is a requirement. This is because it is far easier to pray for 5 minutes five times a day than it is to meditate on a word, symbol, or empty the mind for an hour a day. Not to mention most us fail to even do the five daily prayers, myself included (I’m working on it).

Now let’s go over some types of Islamic mediations and how to mediate in Islam. There is no way I can fully describe meditation in one simple blog post, because well Islam has over a hundred ways and meanings behind each mediation practice. Not to mention the hadith lore, Quranic lore, Sufi saints, and etc, behind all the practices. Islam is not unique in the complexity of meditation, as there are numerous books on Buddhist meditation and magazine explaining mediation to the average person.

The first step to meditate is to make wudu. Wudu in Islam is ritual purification with water, that is done before each prayer if the wudu is broken. Some Sufi groups don’t require wudu before mediation and some do. After the wudu, it is recommended to do 2 rakats of prayer. This is meant to set the mind for meditation, again not every group does this and it is not a set rule. There are other steps to prepare to meditate, some give five rules and some give plenty more. Some Sufi orders require a spiritual teacher, like a guru to practice meditation and some do not.

The most common meditation is using prayer beads or tasbih. After each prayer, it is considered sunnah to say Subhanallah: 33 times (This means: Glory be to Allah), Alhamdulillah: 33 times (This means: Praise be to Allah), and Allahu Akbar: 33 times (This means: Allah is the Greatest). You can see Muslims sitting silently moving prayer beads in their hands in public places, on a couch, or anywhere. This is the most common mediation throughout the Muslim world and is the easiest to practice. If there are no beads, Muslims use their fingers. The prayer beads themselves come in three different sizes; the largest has 99 beads, second has 33 beads, and the smallest has 11 beads, these numbers are important to Muslims. God is supposed to have 99 names, plus one (Insert Jay-Z song joke). 1, 3, and 7 are other important numbers. When using the beads, we can speak aloud or think the words. A Muslim can recite the 99 names of God, reflect on one name of God, say a word like strength, and etc. The beads are a way to keep the hands busy as the mind tries to empty or reflect on a symbol, basically a figit spinner.

Saying la ilaha illa ‘llah generates intimacy with God. This can be recited over and over again using prayer beads, doing a walking meditation, or sitting silently with eyes closed. It is said that anyone who does extensive amounts of meditation but does not feel expanded intimacy with God is doing so in vain. Saying la ilaha illa ‘llah 1000 times with the intention to gain spiritual disclosure of unseen things (khasf-i ghuyub) all secrets of the spiritual and material worlds will be revealed. Anyone who repeats it 70,000 times will be taken to paradise. Is this true? I have no idea, try it out.

Heart meditation is another type of meditation that focuses on the heartbeat in the form of God or the heartbeat of life. The seeker should be surrounded by love and you must focus on your own heartbeat. Breathing meditation was practiced by Rumi. Like other breathing techniques, the person is breathing in and out. Focusing on breathing in or out, for example, breath in and think Allah, then slowly breath out hu and feeling it strike your heart. Both practices have loads of rules by various Sufi branches.

Islamic meditation can be summed up as the remembrance of God and trying to elevate one to a higher state. There isn’t enough emphasis on mediation by the average Muslim; nor on how to practice meditation techniques or how to use prayer beads. Sure a Friday sermon may say “do this cause its sunnah” and they might even say your reward is “going to heaven.” Most people, including myself, really do not care about the reward for heaven (I would like to get into heaven). Constantly stating, do this so you get a reward takes out the entire spiritualityand meaning out of the very act. It makes me feel like a little kid getting bribed to do something good when you know I don’t care or understand the act, you just want me to be quiet in the supermarket. We shouldn’t bribe our fellow Muslims, treat them like adults and teach. Sure if I become a “perfect” Muslim I’ll get to heaven, yet performing acts isn’t the same as feeling or understanding the depth of the act. Muslims need to focus both on the human aspects of our religion, alongside the spiritual acts. We don’t pray because God told us, the Quran even states God doesn’t need prayer. Prayer and meditation are about our own spirituality. We reach a higher plain of existences, by reflecting our faults and understanding how to overcome the negative side of being human to get closer to God.

Islam is both spiritual and action. We need not forget that while it’s important we act against wrongdoings, we also need to focus on connecting to God. The whole new age movement of White yogis chanting the sacred “Om” or mediating to take off the stress of the modern world isn’t far off from Islam. The whole yogi-aesthetic isn’t some far off Rich White Vegan person ideal, who needs to travel to India to reach enlightenment. Nor is it solely a tool of Buddhism. Let’s practice the spiritual aesthetic of Islamic mediation and prayer beads, to relieve stress and expand on our spirituality to become closer to God.