I used to recite the Names of Allah when young. I had this book which would say if you recite this Name so many times this will happen, etc. Like if you recite Al-Raheem 100 times you will have good memory.
Are these based on experience? And what is your opinion as to if this is permissible to do or not and if it works or not? I never really recited for a specific thing. I just recited because I loved the Names of Allah but then I read doing so is bidah so I stopped.
But I wish I could recite the Names again. I mean how can reciting the name of Allah be wrong (i.e. like Ya Rahmaan Ya Rahmaan)? The Names in themselves are beautiful and contain Praise in themselves for Allah.
The Names of Allah (SWT) are waseelah for our du’as … So it makes sense that we invoke Allah (SWT) with His Name of Ghafoor when we want to be forgiven and we invoke Him with Ghani when we need some wealth and so on. To do the dzikr of the Names actually enables us to reach a connection with the Names … Each utterance brings our understanding and focus nearer to what we are uttering. (Empirically proven). When we want to do hifz of something we do dzikr of it … We program ourselves by doing dzikr - when people are brainwashed they are subjected to repeating mantras and this dzikr is like a self-induced programming. It works! And it brings on characteristics that reflect what we are occupying our minds with …
When the Sahabah used to enter the bathroom with stones in their mouths to prevent the limbs from the action of dzikr of Allah (SWT) (yet their hearts would continue) that is proof that they were doing dzikr so much it would be hard for them to actually stop doing it physically.