Discover the meaning of the term Al-tasbiyḥ (تَّسْبِيح) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readWhen it is intended to mean glorification (tanzih) and pure remembrance, it does not govern a preposition: one therefore does not say "sabbahtu bi-llah".
Declaring the Truth free of the imperfections of contingency and temporal origination.
Glorifying Allah of every imperfection and describing Him with perfection; its root, as Ibn Sayyid al-Nas said: "the swift passing in the worship of Allah", and it is a masdar like ghafaran (al-Qamus al-Qawim, p. 300; Nil al-Awtar 2/196).
Declaring the Truth free of the imperfections of contingency and temporal origination.
Glorifying Allah against any manifest defect in a creature or in a rank, said al-Haralli. Another (such as al-Jurjani, al-Ta'rifat, p. 59) said: declaring the Truth free of the imperfections of contingency and temporal origination.
It is to say: "Glory be to Allah, praise be to Allah, there is no deity but Allah, and Allah is greatest".
Sanctification (taqdis) and glorification (tanzih); in the Quran: "The seven heavens, the earth and whoever is in them glorify Him, and there is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise, but you do not understand their glorification: He is forbearing, forgiving" (al-Isra' 17:44). The prayer: by attributing the part's name to the whole, or because the worshiper glorifies Allah by the sincerity of his worship; tasbih being tanzih, this falls under concomitance. Al-sabbaha: the index finger; so named because it is used in the tasbih. Subhana: one says subhana Allah, an expression of glorifying Allah of every defect, and an attribute of the originated; it is accusative on the masdar, indeclinable due to its frozen form; it occurs twenty-five times in the Quran; the phrase subhana Allah may be used to express astonishment; it is frequent in the noble hadith and in Arab speech, as the Messenger's saying (peace be upon him): "Glory be to Allah! The believer is not impure". Al-sabha: strung beads with which one performs the tasbih; plural: subuh; al-Azhari said: it is a recent invention. The prayer; legally: applied to the supererogatory prayer (Ibn 'Abidin). Al-sabhala: saying subhana Allah. Al-Sabbuh: Allah; its meaning: the One cleared of imperfections, of any partner, and of all that befits not the Godhead. Al-musabaha: the index finger. Al-sabu': every creature with a canine tooth that attacks people and beasts to devour them, such as the lion, the wolf and the tiger; in the Quran: "Forbidden to you is carrion" and "the beast of prey... except what you slaughter" (al-Ma'ida 5:3); plural: siba'. Every creature with claws. With the Hanafis: the name of every animal that tears from the ground or snatches from the sky, a predator, habitually a killer; and: everything that eats flesh; and every animal whose flesh is not eaten. With the Shafi'is: what attacks people. With the Hanbalis: every devourer. Al-sab': the seventh.