The science in Dhikr

This article will examine the scientific proofs supporting the effects that dhikr has on the human brain.

What is the brain itself? All the activity of the brain is nothing but bio-electrical activity in several distinct parts of it, amongst various sets of neurons (cellular groups) where each are assigned a specific duty, functioning as a whole. Each and everyday 14 million neurons that make up the brain, are in constant interaction with 16 billion neighbouring neurons. All our activities and our understanding, that is all the functioning of the brain is the result of countless bio-electrical flows, are brought to existence in these sets of neurons occurring as a result of these interactions.

Now, when dhikr is practised you continuously repeat a given name of Allah (subhanahu wa Ta'ala) a specific number of times and therefore reflecting a meaning that belongs to Allah (subhanahu wa Ta'ala) During the repetition of dhikr, certain regions of the brain are engaged and become active. There occurs a bio-electrical flow in those neural groups of the brain. After that task is performed repeatedly (as you repeat on the same name or a group of names) the neural activity increases, and so does the bioelectrical energy. In turn, this overflows and new sets of neurons are put to work and so, some other regions of the brain become active. Therefore the brain begins to expand. The brain starts to bring out new meanings, perspectives and commentaries which it had not previously used before the practice of dhikr. It is opening to receive the Truth. So just think what the effect that dhikr has on the heart to receive Truth!

Clearly the whole brain is a centre of interpretation. Clearly there exists no picture, no sound inside the brain. To achieve a state of consciousness (i.e. heedful to Allah's (subhanahu wa Ta'ala) commands) we must use our brains to enter reality and the more we become conscious, the more benefits we will attain, insha'Allah.


The findings of complementary laboratory tests may be found in the 'Scientific American', December 1993:

Complementary findings were described this year by investigators at Washington University and which have emerged through PET scans of humans. PET measures neural activity indirectly. In the experiments, volunteers were provided with a list of nouns. They were required to read the nouns one-by-one and to propose for each noun - a related verb. When the subjects first did this task, several distinct parts of the brain, including parts of the prefrontal and cinulate cortex, displayed increased neural activity. But if the volunteers repeated the task with the same list of words several times, the brain activity shifted to different regions. When a fresh list of nouns were given to them, the neural activity increased and shifted back to the first regions again.

PET Scans completed at Washington University show certain regions of the brain engaged as a subject reads a list of nouns and suggests related verbs. Different regions become active after the first task is performed repeatedly with the same list. The original areas of the brain re-engage when the subject is given another list.

Thus we see even Western science is waking up to the benefits of dhikr which was understood by Muslims many centuries ago without scientific evidence and research to provide proof.