Dhikr: The Contemplative Life in the Sufi Tradition
Journal of Contemplative Studies May 27, 2026 Noman Baig
Sufis maintain an 'anthropocosmic' self-image—a fusion of cosmic and material being—through intense contemplative practices such as dhikr, or remembrance of God. Despite attacks from modern rationalists, religious extremists, and Salafi groups who dismiss Sufism as irrational or heretical, and amid a broader abandonment of cosmological views under modernity, Sufis persist. Dhikr involves invoking God's name as a technique to disclose a God-like ethos in one's being. The argument is that contemplation serves to merge the cosmic and material into a singular experience of being.