The Recompense is Paradise

Peace, one and all…

Narrated ‘ Abd Allah ibn ‘ Amr: “I asked the Prophet, ‘0 Messenger of God, what is the recompense for the sessions of invocation?’ He said: The recompense for the sessions of invocation is Paradise.’”
(Quoted by Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Authenticated hadith.)

Commentary

The sessions of invocation (majalis al-dhikr) are described as gardens of Paradise even in the here-below, as underlined in the previous hadith. The present hadith affirms that the celestial recompense of the sessions of invocation can be none other than Paradise itself. The term expressing the idea of reward in this hadith is ghanima which belongs to the  semantic field of battling, and whose first meaning is the booty, the prey of war. This evidently evokes the greater jihad, the struggle against the negative tendencies of the ego.

Shaykh al-Darqawi

It is said that through the invocation of God (dhikr Allah) the believer attains such peace of soul that the great terror in the day of resurrection can not distress him; how much less can he then be disturbed by the trials and setbacks he faces in this world? Hold fast then to the invocation of your Lord, my brother, as we have told you to, and you will see miracles (that God bestows on us through His grace). And yet, in our eyes  the invocation does not consist in man always saying: Allah, Allah, in praying and fasting; and when misfortune strikes him, he looks for remedies everywhere and is afraid he will not find them. For those who have realized the Truth (may God be content with them), invocation requires that the  invoker conform to rigorously prescribed laws, the most important of which is always abandoning what does not concern him. Then if his Lord becomes known to him, or shall we say, if He reveals Himself to him through one of His Names of Majesty or of Beauty, he will recognize Him and he will not ignore Him. This, indeed, is the veritable  invocation for those who invoke God, and not the state of the person who is continuously occupied with the cult of God and who, when his Lord reveals Himself to him in some form  which is contrary to his desire, does not recognize Him at all. Therefore understand what God teaches us, Amen. And remain firm in patience with God, for He—exalted be He—will cover your weakness with His might, your abasement with His glory, your poverty with His richness, your impotence with His strength, your ignorance with His knowledge, your anger with His clemency, and so on, so that you will taste the eternal life in this world before dying. The reality of this life has not been hidden from you, since God says about those who are in it: ‘And We will remove whatever rancour may be in their breasts. As brethren, face to face, (they will rest) on couches raised. Toil cometh not unto them there, nor will they be expelled from thence’ (Quran 15:47-48)
(Rasa’il, letter no. 37; Lettres d’un maitre, pp. 93-94)

Taken from Tayyib Chourif, Spiritual Teachings of the Prophet