Salatul Tasbih · 3 min read

The Hanafi and Shafi'i methods

Both methods use four rak'ahs. Both reach seventy-five repetitions per rak'ah and three hundred in total.

The difference is where the first fifteen go.

One places them after the recitation, while you are still standing. The other places them at the very start of the rak'ah, before you recite anything. Both are transmitted, and neither is a corruption of the other.

Method one: fifteen after the recitation

This follows the wording in the Abu Dawud narration.

You begin the rak'ah normally, recite al-Fatihah and a surah, and then pause while still standing to say the phrase fifteen times.

After that, ten at each of the six remaining points.

Recite al-Fatihah and a surah, then 15 while standing.
10 in ruku.
10 after rising from ruku.
10 in the first sujud.
10 sitting between the sujuds.
10 in the second sujud.
10 sitting after the second sujud.

Method two: fifteen at the start

This is the arrangement generally followed in the Hanafi school, transmitted from Ibn al-Mubarak.

The fifteen come immediately after the opening praise, before you seek refuge and before you recite.

Because of that shift, ten are added after the recitation instead.

Opening takbir, then the opening praise, then 15.
Seek refuge, recite al-Fatihah and a surah, then 10 while standing.
10 in ruku.
10 after rising from ruku.
10 in the first sujud.
10 sitting between the sujuds.
10 in the second sujud.

Which one should you follow?

Follow the one your school or your teacher gives you.

Neither is wrong, and switching between them does not invalidate anything.

If you have no particular attachment, the Hanafi arrangement is the one most commonly taught in South Asia, and the Abu Dawud arrangement is the one you will most often meet in English hadith translations.

What is the same in both

Almost everything.

The phrase does not change. The four rak'ahs do not change. The total of seventy-five per rak'ah and three hundred overall does not change.

The usual tasbih of ruku and sujud is said first in both, with the additional repetitions coming after it.

The Hanafi source

Ibn Abidin sets the prayer out in Radd al-Muhtar 2:27, in Kitab al-Salah, the chapter on witr and voluntary prayers.

He records four rak'ahs, seventy-five per rak'ah, three hundred in total, and notes that it may be prayed with one salam or two.

He cites the Ibn al-Mubarak arrangement as the preferred narration in the Hanafi discussion, which is why method two above is the one generally taught in that school.

On the hadith itself he writes that it is hasan on account of the multiplicity of its routes, and that whoever claimed it fabricated was mistaken. The disagreement about that judgement is on is Salatul Tasbih authentic.

For the method in a single sequence, see how to pray Salatul Tasbih.