Dhikr during Hajj

What is narrated, and where the gaps are

There are words at the joints of the pilgrimage: entering ihram, passing the Black Stone, standing on Safa and Marwah, standing at Arafah, standing at Muzdalifah, throwing the pebbles.

Between those joints are hours of walking, riding and waiting where nothing is fixed. Through the circuits themselves, between the two hills, in the tents at Mina, on the road between sites, the tongue is left free.

Handbooks fill those hours with printed Arabic. The effect is that a pilgrim starts to believe that reading someone else's compilation is required, and that asking Allah in their own language is a fallback. Neither is true.

The talbiyah

The one continuous dhikr of Hajj is the talbiyah, called from the moment ihram begins at the miqat. Its wording is in Sahih al-Bukhari 1549, narrated from Abdullah bin Umar.

It has its own page on this site, with the full wording and meaning: the talbiyah. There is no point repeating it here.

What matters on this page is where it stops. In Umrah it stops on reaching the Ka'bah for Tawaf. In Hajj it runs until the stoning at Jamarat al-Aqabah on the morning of the tenth, after which takbir takes over. Both stopping points are settled in the manuals, and we have not yet pinned either to its own collection and number, so they are given here as the agreed practice rather than quoted as narrations.

Tawaf

Very little is fixed for the 7 circuits, which surprises people.

At the Black Stone there is takbir. Sahih al-Bukhari 1613 has Ibn Abbas reporting that the Prophet ﷺ made Tawaf on a camel, and each time he came level with the Corner he pointed towards it and said Allahu Akbar.

Between the Yemeni Corner and the Black Stone, the supplication commonly recited is Rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanatan wa fil-akhirati hasanatan wa qina 'adhaban-nar, which is a verse of the Qur'an. That it belongs to that stretch is the settled practice in the manuals, and we have not pinned it here to a collection and number.

For the rest of each circuit nothing is narrated. No supplication belongs to circuit 1 as against circuit 4. Recite, remember, or ask in your own words.

The pocket guides that print a different long supplication for each of the 7 circuits are giving you a later arrangement, not a narration.

Sa'i between Safa and Marwah

There are words at the two hills and nothing fixed in between.

Approaching Safa, the verse recited is Quran 2:158, that Safa and Marwah are among the symbols of Allah. Sahih al-Bukhari 1643 carries that verse in the discussion between Urwa and Aisha about Sa'i.

On each hill, facing the Qiblah with hands raised, the Prophet ﷺ declared Allah's oneness and greatness. The detailed wording is given in the manuals from the long narration of his Hajj, and we have not yet pinned it here to a number.

Walking between the hills, nothing is narrated for a particular lap. What people commonly say there is a short plea for forgiveness and mercy, which is a reasonable thing to say and not a fixed text.

Arafah

The ninth day is the day most associated with supplication.

The narration usually quoted for this is Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3585, that the best supplication is the supplication of the day of Arafah, and that the best thing said by the Prophet ﷺ and the prophets before him is La ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamdu, wa huwa 'ala kulli shay'in qadir. It is graded da'if in the Darussalam edition, and pages that quote it as established almost never say so.

The full formula in it is separately established elsewhere, so saying it is on firm ground regardless of that grading.

Past that, nothing is fixed for the afternoon. The Prophet ﷺ stood facing the Qiblah with his hands raised from after Dhuhr until sunset, asking in his own words.

Pilgrims spend that afternoon working through a booklet. The pattern in the sunnah is the opposite: a short established phrase, and then hours of asking for what you actually need.

Muzdalifah, Mina, and the stoning

After sunset the pilgrims move to Muzdalifah for the night. After Fajr the Prophet ﷺ stood at Mash'ar al-Haram facing the Qiblah, declaring Allah's oneness and greatness until the sky lightened. The wording is in the long narration of his Hajj and is not pinned to a number here.

At the Jamarat, the dhikr is takbir with each pebble. Sahih al-Bukhari 1750 records Abdur-Rahman bin Yazid watching Ibn Mas'ud throw 7 pebbles at Jamarat al-Aqabah, saying Allahu Akbar with every one, and then saying that this is where the one to whom Surat al-Baqarah was revealed stood.

That is a companion's practice reported as the model, which is how the manuals treat it. It is worth naming the difference rather than reporting it as the Prophet's own words in that hadith.

After the small and medium Jamarat on the days of tashriq, the practice is to stand facing the Qiblah and supplicate at length. There is no standing after the large one.

The takbir of Dhul Hijjah and the days of tashriq

Takbir is the dhikr of the first ten days and of the days of tashriq, and it applies to everyone, not only to pilgrims.

The common timing is from the dawn of the day of Arafah through the Asr of the thirteenth. The common wording is Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, la ilaha illallahu, wallahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, wa lillahil-hamd, reported from companions including Ibn Mas'ud.

Both the timing and that wording come from the fiqh literature and from reports outside the main six collections. We have not verified either against a collection and number, so they are given here as the widely followed practice and not as a narration with a grading.

It is said after the fard prayers and raised in homes, markets and mosques through those days.

What to do with the pages that have no narrated words

Use the booklet as a prompt, not a script.

Reading a paragraph of Arabic you do not understand is not better than asking Allah for your parents, your children, your health and your forgiveness in the language you think in.

The supplications narrated from the Prophet ﷺ are short, direct and comprehensive. They are not long rhyming compositions, and the long compositions came later.

Where the narrated words run out, speak. That is not a concession. It is what the hours were left open for.

How far the checking went

The hadith cited by number here were read on sunnah.com on 10 August 2026: Bukhari 1549 for the talbiyah, Bukhari 1613 for the takbir at the Black Stone, Bukhari 1643 for the Safa and Marwah verse, Bukhari 1750 for the takbir with each pebble, and Tirmidhi 3585 for the supplication of Arafah, whose da'if grading is the Darussalam grading printed there.

Several things on this page are stated as the settled practice of the manuals rather than quoted as narrations: where the talbiyah stops, the supplication between the two corners, the wording on Safa and Marwah, the standing at Mash'ar al-Haram, and the timing and wording of the takbir of tashriq. Each of those is agreed in practice and each still needs its own collection and number before it gets quoted as one here.

No printed edition was consulted for any of it.