Occasions · 3 min read
The talbiyah
The talbiyah is the phrase called out from the moment ihram begins and repeated through hajj and umrah.
It is in Sahih al-Bukhari 1549.
No count is narrated for it. It is said often and aloud, and that is the practice rather than a number.
What it is
Labbayk Allahumma labbayk means: here I am, O Allah, here I am.
It is an answer rather than a request. The pilgrim is responding to a call, and the wording goes on to affirm that praise, blessing and sovereignty belong to Allah alone, with no partner.
The full wording as narrated from Abdullah bin Umar is in Sahih al-Bukhari 1549, and it is carried on the counter under the talbiyah preset with its transliteration and meaning.
When and how it is said
It begins on entering ihram at the miqat and continues through the journey.
It is raised while travelling, on mounting, on climbing and descending, and after prayers. The practice is continuous repetition tied to movement rather than a seated count.
How loudly it is said differs between men and women in the fiqh discussion, and that is a ruling question rather than a matter of narrated wording, so it is not settled here.
Where the talbiyah stops
The talbiyah does not run to the end of the pilgrimage. It stops at a point, and knowing where matters more than most handbook detail.
In Umrah it stops on reaching the Ka'bah for Tawaf. In Hajj it continues until the stoning at Jamarat al-Aqabah on the morning of the tenth of Dhul Hijjah, after which takbir takes its place.
Both stopping points are agreed in the manuals. We have not yet pinned each one to its own collection and number, so they are stated here as the settled practice rather than quoted as narrations.
No count, and why that fits
The talbiyah is not counted the way the phrases after salah are counted.
It is a call tied to travel and to a state, not a seated exercise with a total.
A target would not suit it, and none was narrated. The counter carries it with no target set.
Talbiyah and the takbir of Dhul Hijjah are not the same thing
These get swapped, and the swap is worth naming.
The talbiyah belongs to whoever is in ihram for Hajj or Umrah. The takbir of the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah is for everyone, pilgrim or not.
Confusing them leads some pilgrims to recite general takbir during ihram travel in place of the talbiyah, which drops the one continuous dhikr the state actually has.
Dhikr in the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah
The first ten days are widely observed as a time to increase remembrance, and takbir is the dhikr most associated with them.
What this page will not do is hand you a phrase paired with a per-day target, because those schedules circulate widely and cite nothing.
The established phrases with their sources are on what to say on a tasbih, and increasing any of them in these days needs no invented scheme. How to check a count you have been sent is on dhikr for rizq, shifa and hajat.
Where to go next
For what is and is not narrated across the rites, see dhikr during Hajj.