In one of my talks at a youth event, I was asked about the best form of dhikr to work on our spirituality. First of all, I am not qualified to have an opinion on this. I will just relay of practices that have been passed down to me by my teachers.
When I asked for Sheikh Abdul Latif al-Farfour al-Hasani of Damascus for wird (daily dhikr) for my daily practice, he said, "My son, have you memorised the Quran?"
"Not yet, Sheikh," I answered.
"Why haven't you?" asked the sheikh.
"It is not easy, sheikh," I replied.
"My son, there is no dhikr greater than the Quran. If you haven't memorised the Quran, then your dhikr should be memorising the Quran. Spend each day reading one page of the Quran and committing it to memory."
Sheikh Hamza Yusuf said that unless we read one juz of the Quran daily, we should abandon every other form of litanies. We should come back to making the Quran the centre of our lives.
If you are thinking of threading the path of spirituality, start with the Quran. Read it. Memorise it. Understand it.
Sometimes we tend to shift our focus from what is most important to other things, while good, not as important.
Sheikh Abdul Latif al-Farfour al-Hasani passed away in 2014 in Malaysia.