Salat al-Tasbih: where the 75 tasbih go in each rakat, and how to keep count

The count: 300 in four rakat

Salat al-Tasbih has four rakat and 300 glorifications, 75 in each rakat. Every source read for this page agrees on both numbers, and on the 75: one set of 15 and six sets of 10. The glorification itself, as Seekers Guidance gives it, is "Subhan Allah, wal-hamdu lillah, wa la ilaha illa Allah, wallahu akbar" (glory to God, praise to God, there is no god but God, God is greatest).

Where sources differ is which moment in the standing the 15 belongs to. The 10s follow from that choice, and that is the part no one page lays out for the person trying to keep count.

Two placements, side by side

Two placements are narrated in the sources read for this page. In the first, the 15 come after the opening takbir and opening supplication, before the recitation, and the first 10 follow the recitation. In the second, the 15 come after the recitation of the Fatiha and a surah, and the sixth 10 falls in the sitting after the second prostration.

Placement A is the one in the Seekers Guidance article. Placement B is in a Seekers Guidance answer by Abu Usama, which says to recite "the thana, Sura al-Fatiha and a Sura followed by the above tasbih 15 times", in Egypt's Dar al-Ifta fatwa, and in an IslamQA answer that says to "say fifteen times while standing" after the first recitation. The same website therefore carries both.

Choose by your school, not by which is easier to count. This page has no view on which is correct.

A count sheet for the checkpoints

Each rakat has seven places where a set is said under either placement, and the total is fixed at 75, so a missed set shows up as a shortfall at the end of the rakat. The sheet below is for Placement B, the one three of the sources give; for A, move the 15 to before the recitation and the first 10 to after it, and drop the last 10.

The same sheet is repeated for each of the four rakat, and the running total resets to 0 at the start of each. Counting by checkpoint turns 300 into four repeats of a seven-line list, which is easier to hold than a number climbing to 300.

How often, and what the sources say about the hadith

The prayer is described as one to pray as often as a person can. Seekers Guidance and Dar al-Ifta both give the narration from Tirmidhi in which the Prophet told his uncle al-Abbas to pray it daily if he could, and if not weekly, then monthly, then yearly, and if not that, once in a lifetime.

On whether the hadith is established, scholars differ, and the three sources read here differ with them. This page lists the positions as those sources report them and does not rule.

Dar al-Ifta adds that there is no harm in following those who reject the hadith, provided one does not criticise those who perform the prayer. A person who wants to pray Salat al-Tasbih, or to know whether to, is better served by their own teacher than by a page about counting.

Keeping count without losing the prayer

The 300 is a fixed total. Two things keep it honest: the checkpoint sheet above, and the sum at the end of each rakat. If a set was missed, the shortfall is known by the position it belonged to, not by a number that has drifted.

None of the pages opened for this guide says whether counting on the fingers, or with prayer beads, is allowed inside the prayer, so this guide does not say. That is a question of fiqh for the teacher of the school you follow. Outside the prayer, a counter has a clear use: Simple Online Counter's tasbeeh counter is a free browser-based counter that can log how many times the prayer has been prayed, to follow the daily, weekly, monthly or yearly pattern the narration describes. For what a single tasbeeh means as a count of 33 or 100, see how many counts one tasbeeh is, and for how other traditions count on beads, prayer beads by religion.