At a glance
countedQAC morphology over the Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim text (Tanzil quran-uthmani). Counting unit: word tokens carrying the root ذ-ك-ر.
292×
the root ذ-ك-ر
56
imperative tokens
45×
its opposite, ن-س-ي (to forget)
The verse of exchange
interpreted· quran by quran2:152 is the only place in the Qurʾān where the command to remember is answered by God remembering in return.
فَٱذْكُرُونِىٓ أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَٱشْكُرُوا۟ لِى وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ
So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me.
Fa-dhkurūnī adhkurkum — «remember Me, I will remember you.» The same verb, once in the imperative and once in the divine first person. It then turns straight to gratitude, tying dhikr to shukr in a single breath.
Said once forward, four times in reverse
countedExact-phrase and root-adjacency search over all 6,236 canonical verses. Counting the mirrored construction — the same verb applied by God in answer to the human act.
The mirror, in the text's own words.
وَقِيلَ ٱلْيَوْمَ نَنسَىٰكُمْ كَمَا نَسِيتُمْ لِقَآءَ يَوْمِكُمْ هَٰذَا وَمَأْوَىٰكُمُ ٱلنَّارُ وَمَا لَكُم مِّن نَّٰصِرِينَ
And it will be said, "Today We will forget you as you forgot the meeting of this Day of yours, and your refuge is the Fire, and for you there are no helpers.
The retribution is stated as an exact echo — We forget you as you forgot. The same verb, turned around.
وَلَا تَكُونُوا۟ كَٱلَّذِينَ نَسُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ فَأَنسَىٰهُمْ أَنفُسَهُمْ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَٰسِقُونَ
And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. Those are the defiantly disobedient.
The twist that makes the pattern strange: forgetting God does not produce God's absence. It produces self-forgetting. The penalty for losing God is losing yourself.
Read the two constructions side by side and the asymmetry is not in the shape — both are exact echoes — but in the count. The Qurʾān states the forward exchange once, and the reverse four times 7:51 32:14 45:34 59:19. What it never does is make forgetting God into a loss for God. In 59:19 the consequence lands entirely inside the person: fa-ansāhum anfusahum, He made them forget themselves. On this reading the Qurʾān is not describing a slighted deity. It is describing what a self is made of.
Where ذ-ك-ر lives in the Qurʾān
countedWord occurrences per sūrah, QAC morphology over the Ḥafṣ/Tanzil text. Revelation order is the traditional Egyptian chronology, not a computed fact.
ذ-ك-ر292 occurrences · 71 of 114 sūrahs
Counted from the QAC morphology over the Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim (Tanzil) text — hover a bar for the sūrah. The Makkī/Madanī labels and the revelation ordering follow the traditional chronology: an inherited scholarly ordering, not a computed fact.
Before you scroll
interpreted· quran by quranA retrieval pause, not a score. The answer is the next block.
Test your reading
Which root travels with remembrance far more than chance would predict — sharing an āyah with ذ-ك-ر again and again?
Remembrance keeps company with the intellect
countedVerse-level intersection over the QAC morphology: verses carrying ل-ب-ب against verses carrying ذ-ك-ر. Counting unit: the verse. The PMI figure beside it is statistical — verse-level co-occurrence, universe 6,214 verses, minimum co-occurrence 5.
16
verses with ūlū l-albāb
×14.7
lift of ل-ب-ب as a companion
ٱلَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَٰمًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِى خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَٰذَا بَٰطِلًا سُبْحَٰنَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ
Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying], "Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire.
The portrait of ūlū l-albāb: they remember God standing, sitting, lying on their sides — and then reason about the creation of the heavens and earth. Remembrance and reflection in one sentence, not two.
يُؤْتِى ٱلْحِكْمَةَ مَن يَشَآءُ وَمَن يُؤْتَ ٱلْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِىَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّآ أُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْأَلْبَٰبِ
He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been given much good. And none will remember except those of understanding.
Wisdom given, and only those of understanding take the reminder. The link runs both ways: understanding is what makes a reminder land.
One root, three jobs
countedForm counts computed from the QAC morphology. The grouping into three senses is an editorial reading of the lexicon.
The act — to remember, to call to mind
ذَكَرَdhakara 84×, tadhakkara «to take heed» 51×, dhukkira «to be reminded» 18×, and 56 imperative tokens across the root. This is the commanded sense.
The thing — the Reminder, the revelation itself
ذِكْرdhikr as a noun 76×, dhikrā 23×, tadhkirah 9×. The Qurʾān repeatedly calls itself by this word: «indeed We sent down the dhikr, and indeed We are its guardian» 15:9.
What remembrance is set beside
interpreted· quran by quranWhere the Qurʾān places the command to remember: not in isolation, but as the stated purpose of prayer and the condition of the heart's rest.
- Its purpose20:14
Prayer is established *for* remembrance
The Qurʾān gives ṣalāh a stated reason, and the reason is dhikr: aqim al-ṣalāta li-dhikrī — «establish the prayer for My remembrance» 20:14. Prayer is the instrument; remembrance is the end.
- Its measure29:45
And the remembrance of God is greater
Prayer restrains indecency and wrong — and the dhikr of God is greater still 29:45. The verse ranks its own subject below remembrance.
- Its effect13:28
Hearts come to rest
The one effect the Qurʾān names directly, and it says the word twice in a single āyah: hearts find rest in the dhikr of God — surely in the dhikr of God hearts find rest 13:28.
Remembrance and forgetting
countedCounts from the QAC morphology. The two roots share an āyah 12 times, and each is the other's strongest verse-level companion (PMI lift 7.6 — statistical: verse-level co-occurrence, universe 6,214 verses).
Dhikr — remembrance
الذكر292 tokens, 264 verses, 71 sūrahs. Commanded 56 times, promised an answer once, and named as the purpose of the prayer.
Nisyān — forgetting
النسيان45 tokens, 37 verses, 20 sūrahs. Concentrated in al-Kahf and Ṭā-Hā, and used above all for the forgetting of an appointment — the meeting of «this your Day».
Forgetting has an agent
countedThe causative form ansā («to make forget») occurs 7× in the QAC morphology. Grouped by the agent the verse names.
Two verses in adjacent sūrahs use the identical verb with opposite agents. In 58:19 Shayṭān overcame them and made them forget the dhikr of God; in 59:19 they forgot God, so He made them forget themselves. Set together, they describe a sequence rather than two separate threats: an outside agent removes the remembrance, and what follows is not punishment from elsewhere but the self coming apart. This is also, as far as the corpus shows, Shayṭān's most consistently named job — not tempting toward a specific sin, but interrupting attention.
What the text does not quantify
interpreted· quran by quranThe absence is checkable over the corpus; reading it is interpretation.
For an act commanded 56 times, remembrance is given remarkably little procedure. The Qurʾān says to remember God much — dhikran kathīran 33:41 — and morning and evening, and standing and sitting and lying down 3:191. It never sets a count, a formula, or a tally. The litanies and rosaries the tradition built are real and are sunnah; they are not in the text. On a page full of exact figures that absence is worth naming plainly: the one measure the Qurʾān gives for remembrance is kathīr, much — a word that refuses to become a number.
What the Qurʾān attaches to it
interpreted· quran by quranEach outcome is anchored on a verse where the Qurʾān itself states the consequence.
God remembers in return
2:152The one stated exchange: remember Me and I will remember you.
The heart comes to rest
13:28Assurance — the effect named twice in one āyah.
Understanding follows
3:191Those who remember are those who then reason about creation.
Its absence costs the self
59:19Forgetting God is answered by being made to forget oneself.
The theme in full
interpreted· quran by quranA curated set: the root naming itself, the command, and the forgetting.
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا ٱلذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَحَٰفِظُونَ
Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian.
The Qurʾān calling itself al-dhikr — and guaranteeing its own preservation in the same clause.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱذْكُرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ذِكْرًا كَثِيرًا
O you who have believed, remember Allah with much remembrance
The measure, and the only one given: remember God much.
ٱتْلُ مَآ أُوحِىَ إِلَيْكَ مِنَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ وَأَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ إِنَّ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ ٱلْفَحْشَآءِ وَٱلْمُنكَرِ وَلَذِكْرُ ٱللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ
Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do.
Prayer restrains — and the remembrance of God is greater. A verse that ranks its own subject second.
إِنَّنِىٓ أَنَا ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنَا۠ فَٱعْبُدْنِى وَأَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ لِذِكْرِىٓ
Indeed, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me and establish prayer for My remembrance.
The purpose clause: establish the prayer for My remembrance.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِذَا نُودِىَ لِلصَّلَوٰةِ مِن يَوْمِ ٱلْجُمُعَةِ فَٱسْعَوْا۟ إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ وَذَرُوا۟ ٱلْبَيْعَ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
O you who have believed, when [the adhan] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumu'ah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allah and leave trade. That is better for you, if you only knew.
The Friday call, named as a hastening to the dhikr of God — the word standing in for the whole assembly.
إِلَّآ أَن يَشَآءَ ٱللَّهُ وَٱذْكُر رَّبَّكَ إِذَا نَسِيتَ وَقُلْ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَهْدِيَنِ رَبِّى لِأَقْرَبَ مِنْ هَٰذَا رَشَدًا
Except [when adding], "If Allah wills." And remember your Lord when you forget [it] and say, "Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this to right conduct."
Forgetting inside a prophetic narrative, and the instruction that follows it: say «if I forget, my Lord will guide me».
The neighbourhood
interpreted· quran by quranEdges the page develops: what remembrance is the purpose of, what it produces, what it is measured against, and the root's own homonym.
A last look
interpreted· quran by quranThe counts show a root that is commanded more than it is explained. Fifty-six imperatives, one promised exchange, one named effect, and for a measure only the word much. What the morphology cannot tell us is what remembering actually is — whether the tongue's motion, the mind's attention, or something the two only point at. The Qurʾān seems content to leave that open and to keep asking. It is worth noticing that the book's own name for itself is this word: not the argument, not the law, but the Reminder — as though what it mainly claims to do is return you to something you already had.