( 2:186 ) ﴿وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِ نَفْسُهُ وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ.﴾ And We know what his soul whispers within him, and We are nearer to him than the jugular vein. ( 50:16 ) and others like them, constitute a kind of metaphor and allegory. Otherwise, His sacred being is above proximity and distance, physical or immaterial; for these qualities entail limitation ( tahdid ) and likeness ( tashb’ih, i.e. to creatures) and God Almighty is beyond them.
Rather, the presence of all existents in the court of His sanctity is a relational presence, and the encompassment of that Sacred Essence over the particles of the universe and the chains of existents is the encompassment of sustenance, which is something other than sensible or spiritual presence and is different from outward and inward encompassment.
From this noble tradition, and some other traditions as well, the preference for concealed remembrance ( dhikr al-khafi ) and the desirability of remembrance within the heart and secretly can be inferred. This is also indicated by the noble verse: ﴿وَاذْكُرْ رَبَّكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ تَضَرُّعًا وَخِيفَةً وَدُونَ الْجَهْرِ مِنْ الْقَوْلِ بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالْآصَالِ.﴾ Remember thy Lord in thy soul, humbly and fearfully, not loud of voice, at morn and eventide.
( 7:205 ) In a noble tradition it is stated that the reward ( thawab ) of this remembrance, on account of its greatness, is known to none except God Almighty. In some circumstances and states the preference may lie with overt remembrance, like the remembrance done in front of the negligent for the sake of reminding them. Hence it is mentioned in a noble tradition of al-Kafi that one who recalls God Almighty amongst the negligent is like one who fights against the muharibun (i.e.
those who have taken up arms against God and Islam). The following tradition is mentioned in the ‘Uddat al-dai of Ibn Fahd: قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ: مَنْ ذَكَرَ اللهَ فِي السُّوقِ مُخْلِصاً عِنْدَ غَفْلَةِ النَّاسِ وَشُغْلِهِمْ بِمَا هُمْ فِيهِ كَتَبَ اللهُ لَهُ ألْفَ حَسَنَةٍ وَيَغْفِرُ اللهُ لَهُ يَوْمَ القِيَامَةِ مَغْفِرَةً لَمْ تَخْطُرْ عَلَى قَلْبِ بَشَرٍ.