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What is the ruling on glorifying God (Tasbih) using the Beautiful Names of Allah or the Greatest Name of Allah (Ismullah Al-A'zham) with specific numbers?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

What Allah has legislated concerning dhikr (remembrance of Allah) is of two types: that whose virtue is tied to a specific number, such as tasbih (subhanallah) after prayers, and that which is absolute, for which adhering to a specific number is not legislated. It has not been reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him) nor from his companions that they remembered Allah with singular words like "Allah Allah" or "Hu Hu"; this is not part of the religion of Islam. It is wrong to specify adhkar (forms of remembrance) with numbers that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not specify. Scholars have differed regarding Allah's Greatest Name (Ism Allah al-A'dham). Some said it is "Allah," others said "Al-Rabb" (The Lord), and some said "Al-Hayy Al-Qayyum" (The Ever-Living, The Sustainer of all existence). Authentic hadiths indicate that Allah's Greatest Name is found in "Al-Ahad Al-Samad Alladhi Lam Yalid wa Lam Yuwlad wa Lam Yakun Lahu Kufuwan Ahad" (The One, The Self-Sufficient, Who begets not nor is begotten, and there is none comparable to Him), and in "Al-Mannan, Badee' Al-Samawat wa Al-Ard, Dhu Al-Jalal wa Al-Ikram [Ya Hayy Ya Qayyum]" (The Bestower, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Full of Majesty and Honor [O Ever-Living, O Sustainer]), and in verses 163 of Al-Baqarah and 1-2 of Al Imran.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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