An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 103 of 176

An-Nisa 4:103

فَإِذَا قَضَيْتُمُ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ فَٱذْكُرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ قِيَـٰمًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِكُمْ ۚ فَإِذَا ٱطْمَأْنَنتُمْ فَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَـٰبًا مَّوْقُوتًا

“And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allāh standing, sitting, or [lying] on your sides. But when you become secure, re-establish [regular] prayer. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times.”

Saheeh International

Essence

After the prayer, keep remembering Allah in every posture; when life settles, pray in full, for prayer is an appointment fixed in time.

A reflection

Standing, sitting, lying on your side

Fa-idhā qaḍaytumu al-ṣalāta fa-dhkurū Allāha qiyāman wa-quʿūdan wa-ʿalā junūbikum. When you have finished the prayer, remember Allah standing, sitting and lying on your sides.

The prayer ends. Remembrance does not. Commentators gloss the three postures simply: in every state you are in.

Dhikr has a small, homely first picture. A man would tie a thread round his finger so that a need would not slip from his mind. Dhikr is the opposite of forgetting. It lives in two places, the heart and the tongue.

Sahih Muslim records his wife describing the Prophet ﷺ: he used to remember Allah in all his moments. And one commentator reports a Companion's words after explaining this ayah. Allah excused no one from His remembrance except the one whose mind is overcome.

Does Allah need to be remembered? No. He says: remember Me, and I will remember you (2:152). The remembering comes back to the one who remembers. It is a thread round the finger of the heart, so that in a forgetful world, he does not lose himself.

Remembrance also refuses to be confined to special places. It is not only for the mosque, or for the mat, or for the moments after a prayer. The ayah sends it into the kitchen, the car, the waiting room and the bed.

Picture a man lying awake at three in the morning, his mind running through debts and deadlines. He cannot pray in that moment; he is exhausted. So he lies on his side and lets each breath out carry a quiet subḥān Allāh. After a while the list in his head grows quieter. He is still awake, but he is no longer alone.

Many people feel a hunger for a calm they cannot name. The ayah offers a door that is open in every posture, at every hour. Which posture do you spend most of your day in? Tie a thread of remembrance to it.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.