The worshipper sits in the usual sitting posture and shouts the word Allāh (God), drawing his voice from his left side and then from his throat.
Sitting as at prayers he repeats the word Allāh still louder than before, first from his right knee, and then from his left side.
Folding his legs under him he repeats the word Allāh first from his right knee and then from his left side, still louder!
Still remaining in the same position, he shouts the word Allāh, first from the left knee, then from the right knee, then from the left side, and lastly in front, still louder!
Sitting as at prayer, with his face towards Makkah, he closes his eyes, says “Lā”—drawing the sound as from his navel up to his left shoulder; then he says ilāha, drawing out the sound as from his brain; and lastly “illā ʾllāhu,” repeated from his left side with great energy.
Each of these stages is called a ẓarb. They are, of course, recited many hundreds of times over, and the changes we have described account for the variations of sound and motion of the body described by Eastern travellers who have witnessed the performance of a ẕikr.
The following is a ẕikr k͟hafī, or that which is performed in either a low voice or mentally.
Closing his eyes and lips, he says, “with the tongue of the heart,”
Allāhu Samīʿun, “God the Hearer.”
Allāhu Baṣīrun, “God the Seer.”