Mantras
Islam Mantras
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Origin 610 to 632 CE
The formula of glorification, recited thirty-three times after each obligatory prayer in the sequence known as the tasbih of Fatima, together with alhamdulillah thirty-three times and Allahu akbar thirty-four times. The word gives its name to the bead string, the misbaha or tasbih, of ninety-nine or thirty-three beads. Subhan is a form that denies deficiency rather than asserting a quality, so the sense is closer to God is beyond that than to praise. Hadith collections record the counted sequence and it is standard across Sunni and Shia practice.
Facts
Practice
Who Performs ItAll adherents of the tradition 1 FrequencyCounted after each of the five prayers Solitary or CommunalSourced to the subject's own account Origins
Origin Period Use
What It Is Used For Form
Type of Mantra Learn More
Glorifying God
The tasbih is the formula of glorification, the declaration Subhan Allah, glory be to God or God is free of all imperfection, and by extension the practice of its repetition. It is traditionally recited, together with the praise of God (tahmid) and the affirmation of his greatness (takbir), a set number of times after each of the obligatory prayers, commonly thirty-three times each, counted on the fingers or on the string of prayer beads that itself takes the name tasbih from the practice.
As a form of dhikr it belongs to the constant remembrance of God enjoined in the Quran, and in Sufi practice it figures among the litanies recited individually and in gathering. To glorify God in this way is to declare him transcendent and free of any defect or partner, and the tasbih is among the simplest and most constant of the devotional formulas by which that recognition is kept before the mind.
Thirty Three, Counted on the Hand
The specific pairing of thirty three, thirty three and thirty four recitations, known as the tasbih of Fatima, is anchored in a hadith recorded in the major Sunni collections describing how the Prophet, unable to give his daughter Fatima a household servant she had asked for, taught her this formula instead as something of greater lasting benefit, said upon retiring for the night. That narrative is what fixes the specific counts practiced today, rather than the Quran itself, which supplies the vocabulary of glorification generally without specifying numbers.
How the count should be kept has its own minor history of disagreement. The earliest and least disputed method is counting on the joints and tips of the fingers of the right hand, a practice attributed to the Prophet in hadith and still preferred by some scholars on that authority alone. The tasbih, a string of prayer beads, is a later tool for the same counting task, and its permissibility was debated by early jurists precisely because it lacked the same direct prophetic attribution as finger counting, with some conservative opinion treating beads as an unnecessary innovation and more accommodating opinion treating them as a permissible aid to an act whose substance the Prophet himself endorsed regardless of the counting method used. Both positions persist today, and the continued use of the word tasbih for the beads themselves, rather than only for the recitation, reflects how thoroughly the tool and the formula have merged in ordinary usage even where jurists keep them conceptually separate.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Known as the tasbih of Fatima, recited thirty three times after each obligatory prayer.
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
Thirty-three times after each obligatory prayer, with the praise and the magnification completing the sequence.
Held Differently
The Twelver rosary follows the tasbih of Fatima, thirty four pronouncements of God's greatness, thirty three of praise and thirty three of glorification, taught by the Prophet to his daughter.
Shia (Twelver), Denominations Counted on beads of Karbala clay, so the count carries a claim about a place as well as a number.
Originates in Language
The mantra is transmitted in Arabic.
Part Of
Recited in the standard post-prayer sequence after obligatory prayer.
Related To
Takbir is recited thirty four times in the same post-prayer sequence as Tasbih, together known as the tasbih of Fatima.
Sources
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