Ruling on using the masbahah (prayer beads)

Praise be to Allah

Some scholars say that it is permissible to
use the masbahah (prayer beads), but they say that it is preferable to do
tasbeeh (count praises) on one’s fingers; others say that it is bid’ah
(reprehensible innovation).

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in
al-Fatawa (22/187): “Some of them might show off by putting their
prayer-mats over their shoulders and carrying their masbahahs in their
hands, making them symbols of religion and prayer. It is known from the
mutawatir reports (reports in such large numbers that they couldn’t be
forged) that neither the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
nor his Companions used these as symbols. They used to recite tasbeeh and
count on their fingers, as the hadeeth says: “Count on your fingers, for
they will be asked, and will be made to speak.” Some of them may count their
tasbeeh with pebbles or date stones. Some people say that doing tasbeeh with
the masbahah is makrooh (disliked), and some allow it, but no one says that
tasbeeh with the masbahah is better than tasbeeh with the fingers.” Then he
(may Allah have mercy on him) goes on to discuss the issue of showing off
with the masbahah, saying that it is showing off with regard to something
that is not prescribed by Islam, which is worse than showing off with regard
to something that is prescribed.

Al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-‘Uthaymeen (al-Liqa
al-Maftooh, 3/30) was asked whether using the masbahah for tasbeeh is
bid’ah, and his reply was: “It is better not to do tasbeeh with the
masbahah, but it is not bid’ah, because there is a basis for it, which is
the fact that some of the Sahabah (Companions) did tasbeeh with pebbles. But
the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) taught us that
tasbeeh with the fingers is better, as he said, ‘Count with the fingertips,
for they will be made to speak.’ Doing tasbeeh with the masbahah is not
haram (impermissible) or bid’ah, but it is better not to do it, because the
one who does tasbeeh with the masbahah has shunned something better. Using
the masbahah may also be contaminated with some element of showing off,
because we see some people carrying masbahahs that contain a thousand beads,
as if they are telling people, ‘Look at me, I do a thousand tasbeehs!’
Secondly, those who use the masbahah for tasbeeh are usually absent-minded
and not focused, so you see them doing tasbeeh with the beads, but their
gaze is wandering all over the place, which indicates that they are not
really concentrating. It is better to do tasbeeh with one’s fingers,
preferably using the right hand rather than the left, because the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to count his tasbeeh on his right
hand. If a person counts his tasbeeh using both hands, there is nothing
wrong with that, but it is better to use the right hand only.”

Al-Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Deen al-Albani
said in Al-Silsilat al-Da’eefah (1/110), where he quotes the (weak)
hadeeth “What a good reminder is the subhah [masbahah],”

“In my view, the meaning of this hadeeth is
invalid for a number of reasons:

Firstly, the subhah [masbahah] is bid’ah and
was not known at the time of the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him). It happened after that, so how could he
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) have encouraged his Sahabah to do
something that was unknown to them? The evidence for what I have said is the
report narrated by Ibn Waddah in Al-Bid’ wa’l-Nahy ‘anha from al-Salt
ibn Bahram, who said: ‘Ibn Mas’ood passed by a woman who had a [masbahah]
with which she was making tasbeeh, and he broke it and threw it aside, then
he passed by a man who was making tasbeeh with pebbles, and he kicked him
then said, “You think you are better than the Sahabah, but you are following
unjustified bid’ah! You think you have more knowledge than the Companions of
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)!”’ Its isnad (chain of
transmission) is saheeh (authentic) to al-Salt, who is one of the
trustworthy (thiqah) followers of the Tabi’een (Successors).

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

He also said (1/117): “If there is only one
bad thing about the masbahah, which is that it takes the place of the Sunnah
of counting on the fingers, even though all are agreed that counting on the
fingers is preferable, then that is bad enough. How rarely I see people
counting their tasbeeh on their fingers!

Moreover, people have invented so many
sophisticated ways of following this bid’ah, so you see the followers of one
of the [Sufi] tareeqahs (orders) wearing the masbahah around their necks! Or
some of them counting with the beads whilst talking or listening to you! Or
another one – the like of whom I have not seen for some time – riding his
bicycle through a street crowded with people, with the masbahah in one of
his hands! They are showing the people that they are not distracted from the
remembrance of Allah for even an instant, but in many cases this bid’ah is a
cause of their neglecting what is obligatory (wajib). It has happened many
times – to others as well as myself – that when I greet one of these people
with salam, they answer only by waving and not by saying the words of the
greeting. The bad results of this bid’ah are innumerable, and no one can say
it better than the poet:

‘All goodness is in following that which
went before (the salaf)

All badness is in the innovations of those
who came later.’”

And Allah knows best.