- The worship of the angels is tasbih,
the declaration of the Glory and Perfection
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala.
SubhanAllah, all glory, all perfection, belongs to Allah.
And anything that is of imperfection or deficiency
cannot be attributed to Him.
The angels are actually called Al-Musabbihun,
those that constantly glorify Allah.
Allah says about them,
"Yu sabbihouna laila wa nahar, la yaf'taroon"
That they glorify Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala night and day,
and they never become tired of doing so.
I want you to imagine for a moment
what the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said
about the heavens above.
That there is not a single handspan of the heavens,
except that there's an angel that has been created
to do nothing but glorify Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala
and declare His Perfection constantly.
Sometimes we get a little bit of a sneak peek
into the elaboration of that declaration
of Allah's Glory and Perfection.
The Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam described to us
those that bear the Throne of Allah
as being of the most mighty angels.
And what is it that those angels say?
According to one narration, four of them say,
"Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdik.
Lakal hamdu 'ala hilmeeka b'aada 'ilmik."
That "All glory and perfection belongs to You, O Allah."
"You have all praise for Your Forbearance,
despite Your Knowledge."
Meaning You still show forbearance and forgiveness
despite knowing all things, SubhanAllah.
The other four angels respond and they say,
"Subhanak Allahouma wa bihamdik.
Lakal hamdu 'ala 'afwika ba'ada qudraatik."
"How perfect and glorified are You, O Allah!"
"To You belongs all praise for Your Forgiveness
despite Your Power."
How perfect is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala
that despite His Knowledge of all things,
and despite His Power over all things,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala
deals with His creation with forgiveness,
despite not needing them.
And you see that on the Day of Judgment,
that those same angels,
when they see the scales being set up, al-Mawazin.
And the scales are set up for who?
They're set up for us as human beings.
But when the angels see those scales set up,
they would say,
"Subhanaka, ma 'abadnaka haq'a 'aybaadatik"
"How perfect are You."
"We did not worship You
as much as You deserve to be worshiped."
And when we get to Jannah bi-idhnillahi Ta'ala,
and we are with those angels,
tasbih becomes to us like breathing,
as the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said.
"Daa'wahoum feeha Subhanaka Allahumma."
And Allah tells us in the Quran
that our call in Paradise is,
"How perfect are You, O Allah."
"Glorified are You."
So let's talk about this dhikr and what exactly it means.
"SubhanAllah"
Tasbih is, first and foremost,
as the scholars mentioned, tanzih.
It is to remove every form of imperfection and deficiency
from being attributed to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala.
And it is only for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala.
You cannot do tasbih of any other entity,
not even in proportion.
There's only glory that belongs
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala.
And Allah 'Azawajal informs us
that everyone and everything glorifies Him in some way.
So it's removing all attributions of imperfection,
and then declaring His Perfection constantly.
First and foremost,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala declares His own Perfection.
You find the surahs in the Quran that are al-Musabbihat,
where Allah 'Azawajal says,
"Sabbaha lilaah. Yusabbihu lilaah."
That all of these things glorify Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala.
And when He Himself says,
"Subbhana ladhi asra bi 'abdihi"
All Glory be to the One who took His servant
from al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca to Jerusalem,
and then to the highest heavens.
You see the angels constantly being in a state of tasbih.
You see the Prophets like Musa 'Alayhi Salaam
saying, "Subhanaka tubtu ilaik."
"All Glory belongs to You."
"I have admitted my sins to You."
And when Musa 'Alayhi Salaam asks Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala
for his brother Harun to be a prophet with him,
he says, "kainu sabihaka katheera"
So that we can declare Your Perfection together,
so that we can glorify You together.
And then on top of that,
Allah says that everything in the heavens and the earth,
the heavens and the earth themselves
and everything in between,
that which is known and that which is not known,
that which is seen and that which is not seen,
all of it "tusabbihu lahou"
They are all in a state of glorification.
"Wa laakin la taf'qahoona tasbihahoom"
- but you are unable to understand
or comprehend their tasbih.
So imagine when you are on the prayer mat,
when you are making sujud,
when you're prostrating
and you're putting your head on the ground,
and you're saying,
"Subhanna Rabbi al 'Ala, Subhanna Rabbi al 'Ala,
Subhanna Rabbi al 'Ala
"How perfect is my Lord, the Most High?
How perfect is my Lord, the Most High?"
The ground that you are putting your head on,
the angels that are taking up that praise,
the Lord that is listening to you,
are all in a state of declaring
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala's Perfection.
And look at the beauty of this as well
that you say "Subhanna Rabbi"
"How perfect is my Lord"
And of the benefits of that,
is that as much as you're distancing
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala from any form of imperfection,
you're not distancing Him from you,
because He has brought you near.
So you're allowed to say my Lord.
"Subhanna Rabbi al-Adhim"
"Subhanna Rabbi al 'Ala"
And so this is a beautiful way in which we understand
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala in our religion,
how we understand God.
That as free as Allah is from all imperfections,
He has not freed Himself from His imperfect creation,
and He calls us back to Him.
So when do we use this dhikr on a daily basis?
Number one, you find it most frequently in the Quran
when something unbefitting
is ascribed to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala.
"Wa qalou takhadha Ar-Rahman walada"
They say that the Most Merciful has taken us on.
"Subhana" - how can we accept such a thing?
Or when you see something that only Allah can do.
Something that is entirely under His Control
and under His Power.
And so you see the lightning,
you see things that demonstrate His Power,
and you say SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah,
because you understand
that you are unable to do those things
and unable to control the fate of those things.
So freeing Him from imperfection,
declaring His Perfection,
looking at the things that He does with His Might.
And then when you yourself try to honor Him,
Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala,
when you fall short with all of those things for His sake,
then you go back and you say SubhanAllah.
So in tawbah, in your repentance,
"subbhanak" is part of your repentance.
How perfect are You?
Let not my imperfections come in between me and You.
When you are bearing the insults
or the hardships that come with doing the work
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala, Allah says,
"Wa sabr 'ala ma yuquloon, wa sabbih bihamdi Rabbik"
That be patient with that which they say about you.
"Wa sabbih" - and glorify, declare the Perfection
of your Lord.
And Allah Azzawajal says, and when you finish,
"fasabbih bihamdi Rabbika wa astagh'firhoo"
When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala gives you victory,
then increase in your tasbih,
increase in your declaration of His Perfection,
and seek forgiveness for your own imperfections.
And that's why our mother
Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha says
that towards the end of the life
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam,
he suddenly increased in his tasbih in particular.
And when she asked him why,
he said it was in direct response
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala saying,
"fasabbih bihamdi Rabbika wa astagh'firhoo"
Now, when it comes to our daily usage of this
as well in terms of frequency,
Allah actually specifies in the Quran,
"Wa adhkoor Rabbaka katheera,
wa sabbih bil 'ashee wal ibkaar"
So remember your Lord frequently,
but "wa sabbih" in particular -
declare Allah's Perfection
in the morning and in the evening.
And so it is frequent in our morning remembrance,
frequent in our evening remembrance.
And then after the salah, of course,
it is one of the phrases that we say 33 times.
And then throughout the day,
the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said,
"Would any one of you be able to do 1,000 good deeds a day?"
And we said, "How is that possible, Ya RasulAllah?"
He said, Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam,
that if a person says SubhanAllah 100 times a day,
then that is equal to 1,000 good deeds
or the removal of 1,000 sins.
Abu Hurayra radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu,
who is one of the narrators of the virtue of tasbih,
used to do tasbih 12,000 times a day.
So you could see how the companions understood this.
And by the way, this is when it comes to normal times.
Imagine in Ramadan
where one tasbih is worth 1,000
as al-Zuhri Rahimahullah narrates.
Or in the best days of dhikr,
which are the days of Dhul Hijjah.
So on a normal day, Abu Hurayra radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
would say SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah
12,000 times a day.
Then you see a hadith that mentions
some of the extrapolations.
So for example, "SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi"
All glory belongs to Allah and with His Praise.
So you match up His tanzih, removing all imperfections,
with His thanking, tahmid,
with praising Him, Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala.
And he said, SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam, that
whoever says "SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi" 100 times a day,
that that erases your sins,
even if your sins are like the foam of the sea.
In another narration, he said SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam,
whoever says "SubhanAllah al-Adhimi wa bihamdihi."
And of course this is a shortened version
of "SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi, SubhanAllah al-Adhim"
That if you say it even one time,
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala would plant for you
a palm tree in Jannah.
So just by saying "SubhanAllah" 100 times,
and if you increase that to "SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi"
or "SubhanAllah al-Adhimi wa bihamdihi"
or "SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi, SubhanAllah al-Adhim"
you're planting trees in Jannah,
you're removing your sins
even if they're like the foam of the sea,
and you're having thousands of good deeds written for you
and thousands of sins that are erased.
He said SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam as well,
"Kalimataan khafeefataani 'ala lisaan,
thakeelataani fil mizaan,
habeebataani 'ila ar-Rahman -
subhanAllahi wa bihamdihi, subhanAllah al-Adhim."
Two phrases that you say.
There's so light on the tongue.
They are so heavy on the scale.
They are so beloved to Ar-Rahman, to the Most Merciful.
"SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi, subhanAllah al-Adhim"
So they fill your scale as well,
and they take so little from your day,
from your time, from your tongue.
And then finally, dear brothers and sisters,
the hadith of Juwairiyah radiAllahu ta'ala Anha,
where Rasulullah SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
found her remembering
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala during the day for hours,
and then the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
came back to her, and he said that,
"I have said a phrase that if you say it,
it is equal to all of those hours."
"SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi, 'adadda khalqi,
wa ridha nafsi, wa zeenatul 'arshi,
wa meedada kaleemati."
So let's break this down.
"SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi"
How perfect is Allah and all praise is due to Him.
"'Adadda khalqi"
In accordance with however many of His creation
He has created.
So how much of the creation of Allah exists,
has existed, will exist?
Imagine a tasbih for each
and every single one of the creation of Allah.
"Wa ridha nafsi"
and in accordance with that which is pleasing to Him.
"Wa zeenatul 'arshi"
and in accordance with the weight of His Throne.
"Wa meedada kaleemati"
and the ink that records the words of praise of Him,
Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala.
Think about how weighty this dhikr is
and engage yourself in it day and night.
"SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi,
'adadda khalqi, wa ridha nafsi,
wa zeenatul 'arshi, wa meedada kaleemati"
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala make us amongst those
who praise Him day and night,
who declare His Perfection day and night,
and forgive us for our shortcomings, Allahumma Ameen.
Captioning provided by MUHSEN (www.muhsen.org)