Is using Masbahah/Buah tasbih/Prayer beads bid’ah?

I stumbled upon a writing of one saudi scholar concerning this matter which has been posted in one blog. Ok he says:

Firstly, the subhah [masbahah] is bid’ah and was not known at the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). It happened after that, so how could he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) have encouraged his Sahaabah to do something that was unknown to them?

…

Secondly, it goes against the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Amr said, ‘I saw the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) counting the tasbeeh on his right hand.’

My my, there are so many authentic sirah of Sahabah r.anhum who use masbahah to count the zikr. Also a fatwa from great Imam like Imam al Suyuthi regarding this matter.

Imam al Suyuti recounted in one of his fatwas entitled al-Minha fîl-Sibha (“The Profit In Dhikr-Beads”) the story of ‘Ikrima, who asked his teacher ‘Umar al-Maliki about dhikr-beads. The latter replied that he had also asked about it his teacher al-Hasan al-Basrî who replied: “Something we have used at the beginning of the road we are not desirous to leave at the end. I love to remember Allah with my heart, my hand, and my tongue.” Imam al Suyuti comments: “And how should it be otherwise, when the dhikr-beads remind one of Allah Most High, and a person seldom sees dhikr-beads except he remembers Allah, which is among the greatest of its benefits.” (Al-Suyuti, al-Hawi lîl-Fatawa)

Abu Hurairah possessed a thread with two thousand knots and would not sleep until he had used it all for dhikr. (Narrated by Abu Nu‘aym in the Hilya, and al-Dhahabi in the Siyar and Tadhkira) He said: “Verily, I make glorification (tasbih) of Allah Almighty everyday according to my ransom (qadardiyyati), twelve thousand times.” (Narrated by Abu Nu‘aym in the Hilya, al-Bayhaqi in the Sunan, Ibn Hazm in al-Muh.alla, Ibn al-Jawzi in Sifat al-Safwa, al-Dhahabi in the Siyar and Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, Ibn Rajab in Jami‘ al-‘Ulum wal-Hikam, and Ibn Hajar in the Isaba where he said that Ibn Sa‘d narrates it with a sound chain in his Tabaqat.)

Abu Dawood, Tirmithi, Nasaai, Ibn Hibbaan and Haakim have narrated from Hadhrat Sa’d Bin Abi Waqqaas that Rasulullah s.a.w noticed some date-stones or pebbles placed in front of o­ne his wives with which she was making Tasbeeh.

Abu Dawood and Haakim have narrated from Hadhrat Safiyya r.a that Rasulullah s.a.w came to her while she had heaped in front of her 4,000 date-stones. She was reciting Tasbeeh (Zikr) with the date-stones.

FYI, majority of the saudi’s scholars are wahhabi or salafi or whatever you call it. And those kind of people cannot be trusted and their teaching cannot be used as our reference. Do you know, where’s the location of the original dwelling of saudis, it’s Najd my bro, Najd! Najd currently known as Riyadh (a whole area of it) and this place was secluded by Rasulullah s.a.w in his dua.

Rasulullah once made dua, “Allahumma barik lana fi shamina wa fi yamanina,” (O God, bless us in our Sham (currently known as Syria) and bless us in our Yemen) They (people of Najd) said, “What about Najd, O Rasulallah? Rasulullah said another time, “O God, bless Sham and Yemen.” Again they asked, “What about Najd” and again he did not answer them except by blessing Syria and Yemen. The third time they asked him about Najd, Rasulullah s.a.w said: “Yakhruju minha qarnayyish shaitani wa yakthuru fiha az-zalazilu wal fitan,” (The two horns of the devil will appear from there, and earthquakes, confusion and corruption will abound there) – Bukhari and Muslim

So my bro, never allow ourselves to be tricked by Shaitan! There are so many people who claim themselves or other people who claim them as a great ulama of this era. But to be frank, only a few of them is the true ulama and the rest of them are just a mere story teller! I’d like to quote something from Maulana Zakariya the leader of Muhaddithin, he says “…As for us of this era, we are like a monkey who sits down with a piece of ginger and then calls himself a greengrocer“

Oh yeah, here I copy-n-paste a Q&A of two idiots

Bong:

if it’s bid’ah then how should i use my fingers to do let say 100000 tasbihat? could u sort me out of this matter?

Naturally Vain:

if you can do a hundred then you can do 100000… start by reciting 19 times & remember or write it down.

Bong:

wow 19 times? for real? no, no, no that would only be 1900 coz 100×19=1900. to do 100k u have to write it down 1000 times dude. hmmm just wondering if you can ride a plane to go for hajj, or ride a bike to perform prayers at mosque, can’t we use masbahah to do zikr? is it all those innovations (the airplane, the motorbike and the masbahah ) are bid’ah as well?

if doing zikr using masbahah just to show off, it just like those who ride a E-class Mercedes to perform prayers so clarify this to me as well

Naturally Vain:

you are getting me wrong sister… the Prophet (s.a.w.s) used to to Dzikr & count by hand… possibly also kept his count to memory… i think that you need to consult a more learned scholar to know more on this issue… Whatever that Allah and His Messenger ( s.a.w.s) has not prescribed in religion is considered Bi’dah… scientific innovation is not included in that category. The Prophet (s.a.w.s) never used a Masbahah nor even his left hand…long before the Muslims started using MASBAHAH the pagans, Jews & Christians used Masbahah… I am not fully informed on the issue of Masbahah to be considered a form of show off, so I will refrain from giving you an answer on this issue… i will do more research on it & post it on my blog… check back in a couple of weeks

Bong:

“possibly also kept his count to memory” is this a fact? or just your mere assumption? bro, even though Rasulullah s.a.w didn’t use masbaha, but his companions did! Great sahabahs like Abu Darda r.a, Abu Hurairah r.a. has been reported using masbaha.

Bro it’s good to do research, but in the science of Islam research alone won’t do any good, you have to get the knowledge from ‘alim an natiq. so my bro, don’t be deceived by shaitan la’natullah!

oh sorry, I forgot one thing . about your statement “scientific innovation is not included in that category”… so how about electronic masbaha or tasbih counter like this one

or this one

those are scientific innovation aren’t they? so according to your statements the gadgets ain’t bid’ah rite? although the function is the same as masbaha. so, sort this out for me please

thanks!

Naturally Vain:

i stand corrected. maybe… thanx! i think you are able in doing ur own research & coming to your own conclusion… Salaam!

Bong:

Bro, u got me wrong here. a mere ordinary person could not be able to come up with his/her own conclusion/summary/verdict/FATWA about the matter of DEEN. anything has to be referred to a right person whose expert in that field. Allah says “Fas’alu ahladz-dzikri in kuntum la ta’lamun”.

Allah knows best

oh yeah one more thing, if you sincerely admit your wrong so you got one more job to do, to express your apology+and write up the correct fatwas on your blog. you might not know, how many people who had received a wrong information and turned into deviationist? huh so scary man. so fear Allah!

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)