What is the Tasabih prayer? How to perform it and what are its benefits?

The Tasabih prayer is a voluntary prayer (nafl) performed in a certain manner. It is named Tasabih because it includes numerous tasbih (glorification) as each rak’a contains 75 Tasbihs. “The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told ‘Abbas Ibn ‘Abdul Mutallib, ‘O ‘Abbas, my uncle! Shall I not give you and inform you of that if which you were to do, Allah will forgive your sins—their past and present, intentional and unintentional, minor and major, secret and public?! There are ten things you need to do: Pray a four rak’a [cycle of prayer] prayer and in each rak’a recite the chapter of Al-Fatiha and another chapter. While still standing after you finish reciting (in the first rak’a), say: “Subhan Allah, al-Hamdullah, la IlahillaAlllah, waAllahu Akbar [Glory be to Allah, praise be to Allah, there is no god save Allah, Allah is greatest] 15 times. Repeat the same [invocations] 10 times while making ruku’ [bowing] and then raise your head and repeat them 10 times; go down and say them 10 more times while making sujud [prostrating]; raise your head from sujud and say them 10 times; make sujud [again] and repeat them 10 more times; raise your head and say them 10 times, totaling 75 in each rak’a. Repeat this in each of the four rak’as. Pray the tasabih prayer once daily if you can; if not, once a week; if not, once a month; if not, once a year; if not, once in your lifetime.”

The hadith on Tasabih prayer has been narrated through multiple chains of transmission, and a group of Companions including: Abdullah Ibn ‘Abbas, Abu Rafi’, Abdullah Ibn Amr, al-Abbas Ibn Abd al-Muttalib, Ja’farIbn Aby Talib, Om Salam, al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with them all). The hadith was also narrated by ‘Ikrima as mursal [interrupted chain of transmission], Mohammed Ibn Ka’ab al-Quradhi, Abu al-Jawza’, Mujahid, Isma’il Ibn Rafi’, ‘Aurwah ibn Ruyaym.

This hadith was included by many of hadith narrators Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and Al-Hakim who mentioned in his Mustadrak: “This is an authentic chain of transmission which is proved by the practice of the leaders among the successors up until our time and teaching people to observe the tasabih prayer. One of these leaders was ‘Abdullah Ibn Mubarak. This hadith was also included by Baihaqi in Shu’ab al Iman and he said: “‘Abdullah Ibn Mubarak used to observe this prayer and it was common among the righteous who learnt it from each other; this strengthens the raised chain hadith.” ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Ibn Abu Ruwad: “Whoever desires to attain the prosperity of Paradise is to observe this prayer. May Allah grant us his success.”

Having explained that, Tasabih prayer is a recommended sunnah. This is the opinion maintained by the Shafi’i scholars and Imam al-Nawawi. It is recommended for the Muslim to perform it according to the manner prescribed in the hadith.