“Remembrance is to the heart what water is to a fish — so what becomes of the fish when it leaves the water?”

Ibn al-Qayyim heard this from his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah (661–728 AH / 1263–1328 CE) and gives it in al-Wabil as-Sayyib as the sixteenth of the many benefits of remembering Allah he lists there: that it keeps the heart alive. The next benefit is that remembrance is the heart’s food, and there he describes his teacher sitting in remembrance after the dawn prayer until nearly midday.