Digital tasbih counter

The plastic handheld tasbih costs very little and does one job well. You press the button, the number goes up, and you can do it in your pocket without looking. That's the part worth keeping, so this keeps it.

What it does badly is everything around the count. The battery dies mid-set. The reset button sits next to the count button. It has no idea which dhikr you're on, and it can't tell you what you did this week.

This is the failure people actually complain about, and it has 2 shapes. A physical device loses the count when the battery goes. An app loses it when the phone kills it in the background.

Here, each press is written to your browser storage as it happens. Close the tab at 78, restart the phone, come back tomorrow: it opens at 78. There's no save button because there's nothing to save.

Finished sessions go to a history on your device, so you can see what you did without keeping notes.

The handheld has one big button because a small one would be unusable without looking. The same reasoning applies here, so the tap target isn't the button drawn on the screen. It's the screen.

Reset is deliberately not next to it. Clearing a count of 900 by catching the wrong control is the worst thing a counter can do to you, and it's common. Resetting here takes a confirmation.

A short vibration marks each press, a double tick marks every 33, and a different pattern tells you the target arrived. All of that works with the screen face down on a table.

A handheld device counts to a number and stops there. This carries the words with it: 21 presets, each with its Arabic, its meaning and the hadith it comes from, kept on screen while you count.

Where a count is narrated, the target is set from the narration. Where none is, it says "no set count" rather than quietly supplying a figure that only became common through repetition. The whole list is published as an open dataset if you want to check it without using the counter.

It opens at a URL. If you'd rather have an icon, add it to your home screen and it opens full screen with no browser bar, which is as close to an installed app as makes any difference.

After the first visit it works with no connection, so it stays usable on a plane, in a basement, or on a phone with no data left. There are no ads, no account, and no analytics on your counting.

Space, enter, the right arrow and page down all count, which means a cheap Bluetooth page-turner pedal works as a foot switch. There's more on that setup on the desktop page.

The Turkish name for this device is zikirmatik, and there's a Turkish version of this page. The counter itself also runs in Arabic and Indonesian.

What is a digital tasbih counter?

A counter that replaces the beads of a strand with a number. You press instead of moving a bead, and the figure goes up. The handheld version is a small plastic device with one button; this is the same idea in a browser.

Is a digital tasbih halal?

The fatwas that address electronic counters directly permit them, from two different methodological camps. The guide on this site quotes both by number rather than passing them on unattributed.

Do I need to install an app?

No. It runs in the browser. You can add it to your home screen if you want it to open like an app, but nothing has to be downloaded from a store.

Does it work without internet?

Yes, after the first visit. The page saves itself in your browser, so it opens with the connection off.

What happens if I close the tab at 78?

You come back to 78. Every press is written to your browser the moment it happens, not when you finish, so a crash or a restart doesn't cost you the count.

Is it the same as a zikirmatik?

Yes. Zikirmatik is the Turkish name for the handheld digital tasbih, and this page has a Turkish version at /tr/zikirmatik.

Can I use it on a computer?

Yes. Space, enter, the right arrow and page down all count, which also means a Bluetooth page-turner pedal works as a foot switch.

Are there ads?

None. No ads, no account, no email, no tracking. Your counts stay on your device.