What is the difference between meditation and remembrance of God?

Meditation can be about anything at all. When it is directed towards God, it is remembrance of God as well; when it is directed towards anything else, it remains simple meditation.

Meditation means directing one’s attention calmly and steadily towards something. It may be a breath, a thought, an image or a question. In itself, meditation has no fixed content. It is simply a way of paying attention.

Remembrance of God, on the other hand, has a definite object, and that is God Himself. Whoever reflects on God, on His attributes, His goodness and His creation, is meditating and remembering God at the same time. The verse above shows this beautifully. It describes people who remember God while standing, sitting or lying down, and who reflect on the heavens and the earth. Reflection and remembrance flow into one another.

So meditation is nothing foreign to Islam. It becomes remembrance of God as soon as it turns towards God. What a person seeks then is not only calm but closeness to their Creator. The Holy Qur’an promises that hearts find comfort in the remembrance of God.

Some people say they get a headache when they concentrate hard on remembering God. This does not come from the remembrance of God. Intense concentration on any subject can cause a headache. It is easy to test this by concentrating just as hard on something entirely different. If the headache appears then too, the cause lies in the strain itself or in a physical condition that a doctor should look into.

Remembering God does not have to be tense either. It can be light and natural, a quiet awareness in daily life, while walking, while working or before falling asleep.