How to use a tasbih counter on your phone

How do I use a tasbih counter on my phone?

• Open tasbih.info in Chrome, Safari or any browser.
• Add it to your home screen so saved counts survive longer.
• Choose your dhikr from the list at the top.
• Tap anywhere on the screen once per repetition.
• Feel the short buzz instead of watching the number.
• A double buzz marks each 33, a longer one your target.
• Reset when you finish, and the set enters your history.

Opening it in a browser

Go to tasbih.info. It loads in Chrome, Samsung Internet, Firefox, Safari, Edge and whatever else you have. There's no store page, nothing to sign in to and no cookie banner.

The counter is the first thing on the screen, at 0, with SubhanAllah already chosen. Nothing gates the first tap: no onboarding, no permission dialog, no "pick your tasbih" screen.

Adding it to your home screen

Installing takes one menu item and no download. An icon lands on your home screen labelled Tasbih, and opening it goes straight to the counter with no address bar and no tabs. It's the same page. What changes is how your browser treats what it has saved.

• Android: open the browser menu and tap Install app or Add to Home screen.
• iPhone: tap Share in Safari, then Add to Home Screen.
• iOS 16.4 and later allows this from Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Orion too.

Why does installing it protect your saved count?

Because an installed copy is treated differently from a tab you opened once. Safari on iPhone clears a site's storage after 7 days of browser use with no visit to that site, and home screen web apps have their own use counter, which exempts them from that clock.

The counter also asks your browser for persistent storage. Chrome grants that on engagement signals, Safari grants it on home screen install, and Firefox puts up a permission prompt. Neither layer is a guarantee. An installed copy is far less likely to lose a long total than a tab you opened once, and clearing your browsing data yourself still removes everything.

Counting without looking at the screen

The whole screen counts, minus the thin strips of controls at the top and bottom edges. There's no button to aim at, so your thumb rests where it falls.

Three guards sit behind that. A second tap inside 45 milliseconds is ignored, so a shaky hand doesn't double. A contact that travels more than 12 pixels was a scroll, and the count is taken back silently. A contact far wider than a fingertip is read as water, because wudu happens right before post-salah tasbih and a wet screen invents taps nobody made.

If a count goes astray, the minus button at the bottom left takes one back, and so does the undo button at the top left, which shows the running count.

What each vibration means

A count is a single 12 millisecond tick, short enough that a hundred of them don't turn into buzzing. Every 33 gets two pulses with a gap between them, which is the separator bead on a real misbaha. Your target plays a longer pattern that settles rather than alarms.

The 33 pulse only fires when 33 isn't the target. Counting to 100 you feel it at 33, 66 and 99, then the completion pattern at 100.

iPhone is the exception. Safari doesn't expose vibration to a web page, so the counter tests for it, greys out both vibrate switches and says so in Settings. The click sound is the alternative, and it's off by default because a phone that clicks in a masjid is worse than no feedback.

Choosing a dhikr and its count

The list at the top holds 21 presets. Choosing one loads its Arabic, transliteration and the count that belongs with it. SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah and Allahu Akbar open at 33 (Sahih Muslim 597a). The long istighfar opens at 100 (Sahih Muslim 2702).

Where no number is narrated there's no target. The label reads "no set count" and the counter counts up. The two heavy words (Sahih al-Bukhari 6682) and la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah (Sahih al-Bukhari 6384, Sahih Muslim 2704) are both like this. 100 is widely practised for them, and that's convention rather than a number the hadith gives.

The info button beside the transliteration opens the meaning, the note on the count, the grading where one is needed, and a link to the narration on sunnah.com. La ilaha illallah carries a grading: Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3383, hasan gharib per Tirmidhi, hasan per al-Albani, sahih per al-Hakim with al-Dhahabi agreeing.

The post-salah sequence, step by step

The button under the counter starts the sequence after fard salah and moves through it on its own. A target lands, the next phrase loads, and a row of dots shows where you are. A live count gets one confirmation before it's cleared.

• Astaghfirullah 3 times (Sahih Muslim 591, from Thawban).
• The salam formula once (Sahih Muslim 591).
• SubhanAllah 33, Alhamdulillah 33, Allahu Akbar 33 (Sahih Muslim 597a).
• The closing tahlil once, completing 100 (Sahih al-Bukhari 844, Sahih Muslim 593 for the wording).

What the sequence leaves out, and why

The three Quls now close this guided sequence with verified Qur'anic text. Ayat al-Kursi is also available as a verified preset, but it remains outside the sequence because its post-salah narration is not in a source collection this site can link to directly; the app says so when the sequence finishes.

Both carry a grading worth reading. Ayat al-Kursi after fard salah is from Abu Umamah, in al-Nasa'i's 'Amal al-Yawm wa'l-Laylah no. 100, with al-Tabarani's al-Mu'jam al-Awsat 8068 as a parallel. Ibn Hibban graded it sahih, and al-Albani did the same in Sahih al-Targhib. Ibn al-Jawzi criticised the chain and al-Albani answered him. It isn't in Bukhari or Muslim, which is the label it most often gets online. The three Quls after every prayer is Sunan Abi Dawud 1523, from Uqbah ibn Amir, with sahih (al-Albani) printed on the page.

The takbir also stops at 33 here. The 33-33-34 form is a different narration, from Ka'b ibn 'Ujrah (Sahih Muslim 596a), while 33-33-33 with a closing tahlil is Abu Hurayrah's (Sahih Muslim 597a). Both reach 100.

The four counter styles

Ring, Classic, Beads and Device sit in a row above the number: a progress ring, a large button, a misbaha strand that turns a bead per count, and the handheld digital tasbih with its LCD.

All four are one counting engine wearing different clothes, so saving, haptics and screen reader behaviour are identical. In the bead strand only, Settings adds a material: Theme, Olive wood, Amber or Onyx. The style buttons hide once you start counting and return for 10 seconds when a target lands.

Will the screen turn off while I'm counting?

Not while the counter holds a wake lock. It asks for one as you count, and the setting is on by default, so the display stays lit between taps. Switch to another app and the lock is released. Come back and it's taken again automatically.

iPhone has supported this since iOS 16.4, with the installed-app bug fixed in 18.4. A phone in power saving mode can refuse, and counting carries on regardless. The switch is Keep the screen awake, in Settings under Feedback.

Hiding the browser bars, and why iPhone differs

On Android a full screen button in the bottom bar drops the browser chrome. On iPhone it isn't there, because Safari on iPhone has no Fullscreen API at all.

The home screen install is the route there: a standalone app has no address bar and no tabs. On any phone, the focus button beside it hides the app's own controls and leaves the number and the Arabic.

Does it work without internet?

Yes, after the first visit. The page keeps a copy of itself in your browser, so it opens with no signal at all. Counting never touches the network. The only thing needing a connection is the link out to sunnah.com for each narration.

Updates arrive the next time you open it with a connection, and never mid-session, so a new version can't interrupt a count.

Where your counts are saved

The live count is written to your browser on every single tap rather than on a timer, so a crash or a swipe-away costs you nothing.

Finished sets go elsewhere. A session is recorded when you reset, when you switch dhikr, and as each sequence step completes. Closing the tab records nothing: the live count is kept instead, so carrying on later can't create a duplicate.

The History tab shows the last 7 days as a bar chart with a total and an average per active day, then your last 25 sessions. It sits in a small database that never leaves the phone.

Fingers, and what the fatwas say

Fingers first. Abdullah ibn Amr saw the Messenger of Allah counting the tasbih on his fingers (Sunan Abi Dawud 1502, graded sahih by al-Albani), and women were told to count on their fingertips (Sunan Abi Dawud 1501, hasan by al-Albani). A phone is an aid to that. There's no qiblah or posture requirement for dhikr, so counting while walking, sitting or lying down is fine, and Quran 4:103 mentions remembering Allah standing, sitting and on one's side.

On whether a digital counter is allowed, two fatwas from opposite methodological camps reach the same answer. IslamQA 128914, from Shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid, holds that if beads are permitted then a counting program is more so, on two conditions: the heart has to be present, and no count is invented for a dhikr the texts don't number. Askimam's Hanafi answer at IslamQA.org 81370 puts digital counters under the same ruling as stones and beads, mubah, on condition it isn't regarded as compulsory in the deen or as a sunnah in itself.