Studies in Popular Islam [Chapter 1: The Rosary in Islam]

To reach that ecstasy is the goal of the mystic; to multiply and facilitate the meditations that lead to it, he uses a rosary.

The proper name for the rosary in Islam is subha. It is derived from sabbaha, to give praise; that is, to declare God free from every imperfection or impurity or from anything derogatory of His glory. The word was first used for the performance of supererogatory prayer and then, in post-classical literature, applied to the rosary used for this purpose. ¹ The simplest and perhaps earliest form of the rosary in Islam was a string having ninety-nine shells or beads with a marker after each thirty-three, with which, by counting them, one performs the act termed al-tasb ih, i.e. the repetition of the praises of God. This generally consists in saying subh an All ah thirty-three times, al-hamdu-lill ahi thirty-three times, and All ahu-akbar thirty-three times. This is done by many persons, as a supererogatory act, after the ordinary daily prayers (Surah 30:16).

The rosary is used by all classes of Mohammedans and in all lands today, with the exception of the Wahhabis in Arabia. ² In fact, so general is its use that in popular tradition and in art the Prophet of Arabia is represented as possessing and using a rosary for his daily prayers. Among the relics of Mohammed two rosaries are mentioned and portrayed.

There is evidence, however, that its use was an innovation introduced centuries after Mohammed, by Sufi circles and among the lower classes. Opposition against the use of the rosary made itself heard as late as the fifteenth century A . D ., when the great theologian, Suyuti, composed an apology for it. ³ Abu ‘Abdullah Mohammed al-‘Abdari, the learned author of Al-Mudkhal, who died 737 A . H ., mentions the rosary as one of the strange new practices in Islam which should not be countenanced. ⁴“Among the innovations (bid‘a),” he says, “the rosary is to be noted. A special box is made where it is kept; a salary is fixed for some one to guard and keep it, and for those who use it for dhikr. . . . A special Sheikh is appointed for it, with the title of Sheikh al-Subha. These innovations are quite modern. It is the duty of the imam of the mosque to suppress such customs, as it is in his power to do so.” According to Goldziher, the rosary was not generally adopted until

after the third century of the Hegira. He cites the following facts to prove it:

Even later on, when the use of the rosary had for long ceased to provoke discontent among orthodox Moslems, the controversialists, whose principle was to attack all “innovations,” still distrusted any exaggerations in this practice. But like a great many things that were not tolerated at the beginning under religious forms, the rosary introduced itself from private religious life to the very heart of the mosques.

A. J. Wensinck states that the rosary is mentioned as early as the year A . D . 800, and seems to agree with Goldziher that its use came from India to western Asia ; yet both of these Orientalists quote traditions mentioning the earlier use of small stones, date-kernels, etc., in counting the eulogies of the Moslem prayer-ritual. ⁵

Goldziher quotes from the Sunan of al-D arimi a tradition which indicates this evolution of the rosary, unless, indeed, as many believe, the rosary was borrowed from Hindu or Buddhist pilgrims or converts.

Other traditions show us the Prophet protesting regarding some faithful women against their using these small stones when reciting the litanies just mentioned, and recommending the use of the fingers when counting their prayers. “Let them count their prayers on their fingers (ya‘qidna b’il an amil); for an account will be taken of them.”

All these insinuations found in traditions invented for the purpose denote a disapprobation of the use of the rosary, at the moment of its appearance. The use of small stones in the litanies was, it seems, an original form of the subha, very much like the later use of the rosary. It is said of Abu Huraira that he recited the tasb ih in his house by the aid of small stones which he kept in a purse (yusabbih biha). Let us also mention the severe words of ‘Abdallah, son of the Caliph ‘Omar, which he addressed to a person who rattled his stones in his hands during prayer (yuharrik al-hasa biyadihi), “Do not do that, for that is prompted by the devil.”

Were not the litanies ever counted in this way before the rosary was introduced? One cannot be sure. Anyway, it seems very probable that the traditions against this custom date from the time when the rosary was introduced into Islam. The Tibetan Buddhists, long before the Christian era, used strings of beads, generally one hundred and eight in number and made of jewels, sandal-wood, mussel-shells and the like, according to the status of their owners. Whether Islam adopted the rosary from India during the Moslem conquest is uncertain, but not improbable.

According to P. Edgar Schafer, the use of the rosary came from India , but it was through Christian channels that Islam adopted it. “When Islam crossed the borders of Arabia and entered the world of Hellenic-Christian culture with its dogmatic and scholastic ideas, it met the use of the rosary and adopted it, together with many other Christian practices.” (He refers to Becker’s “ Islam und Christentum ” in Der Islam , January 1913.) This would mean that Islam borrowed the rosary from the Oriental Church . During the Crusades the rosary found its way to the West, to the Roman Catholic Church.

Specific dates for the original use of the rosary in India are out of the question, but, as Cornelius H. Patton remarks: “It must have been at some very remote period that the circlet of jewels was introduced as a means of promoting meditation and registering meritorious religious acts.” And he goes on to say: “From India we may trace the spread of the rosary to the Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma and Siam, known as the Hinayana or the Southern School, and especially to Tibet, where in Lamaism the faith of Gautama reached its lowest level, and whence the rosary, along with other customs, spread to Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan.”

Whether the use of the rosary in Islam was borrowed or arose spontaneously, there is no doubt that it soon took a strong hold on the common people, from Morocco to China, and was used not only for earnest devotion, but later on led to foolish superstitions and magical practices.

I. There are a number of traditions, rightly or wrongly attributed to Mohammed, regarding the blessing of “remembering God,” i.e. His names and attributes. A man said, “O Prophet of God, really the rules of Islam are many—tell me a thing by which I may lay hold of rewards.” The Prophet said, “Let your tongue be always moist in the remembrance of God.” Another tradition reads: “Verily, there are ninety-nine names of God: whosoever counts them up shall enter into Paradise .” ⁶ All these traditions are given in the standard collections in the section called Dhikr.

This religious ceremony or act of devotion called dhikr (vulgar, zikr) is practised by all the various religious orders or brotherhoods in Islam. The dhikr is either recited aloud (jali) or with a low voice or mentally (khafi). The former is more common. The worshipper either recites the ninety-nine attributes of God or certain expressions from the Koran, such as: God is great, Praise be to God, Majesty belongs to God, etc. In every case the rosary is used to keep tally of the seemingly endless repetition. There are a number of devotional manuals, of a high spiritual order, that deal with this remembrancing of God’s names. Al Ghazali entitled one of his best-known books Al-Maqsad-al-asna sharh asma Allah al husna, which might be translated “the chief end of man is to understand and imitate God’s attributes.” I know of nothing in the devotional literature of Islam that contains loftier teaching on the character of God and the duty of godliness. Sir Edwin Arnold collected some of these comments from various other oriental sources in his poems called Pearls of the Faith, or Islam’s Rosary. The threefold division of the rosary corresponds to the usual threefold division of the ninety-nine names, i.e. those referring to God’s power, His wisdom, and His mercy.

In the development of the Sufi ritual among the various orders we soon find extremists. The ordinary rosary did not suffice for their multiplied ejaculations and prayers. So they invented a rosary of one thousand beads, called alf iya. This is widely used in Egypt and the Sudan in connexion with funerals of eminent saints. The ritual is described as follows:

According to the teaching of ‘Abd al-Q adir Al-J il an i, the founder of the Q adiri Order, some of the names of God have special colours:

“There are seven names of Allah which the brethren pronounce when performing the Zikr,—

“1. L a ill aha ill’ All ah. (There is no god but Allah.) Its light is blue, and it must be recited 100,000 times, and has its own peculiar prayer.

“2. Allah, called the Ism-i-Jal il, or beauteous name. Its light is yellow; it must be recited 78,586 times, and has its peculiar prayer. He says that after reciting it that number of times, he himself saw its light.

“3. Ism-i-H u. (The name He.) Its light is red, and its number 44,630, and it has its peculiar prayer.

“4. Ism-i-Hayy. (Name of the Eternal.) Its light is white, and its number 20,092.

“5. W ahid. (The one God.) Its light is green, and its number 93,420

“6. ‘Az iz. (The dear or precious God.) Its light is black and its number 74,644.

“7. Wad ud. (The loving God.) It has no light, and its number is 30,202.” ⁸

The totals of such repetitions (in this case 441,574, different ejaculations) surely require a rosary of a thousand beads to keep tally. Those who are curious regarding this endless ritual may find further particulars in the standard work on the various darvish orders by Octave Depont and Xavier Coppolani. ⁹

Nor must we hastily conclude that there is no value in this “vain repetition.” As in the case of the famous formula of M. Coué, or the auto-suggestion by the hypnotist, the psychology of the dhikr demands, but also often defies, explanation.

II. Connected with its devotional use in the dhikr, the rosary is also used in the form of prayer called istikh ara. This is the technical name given to the practice of divination or the securing of divine guidance in perplexity regarding any enterprise, a journey, sickness, etc. It was practised from the earliest times by the casting of lots: at first, perhaps, by use of the Koran itself (bibliomancy) and later by use of the rosary. In Mecca the choice of a baby’s name is often by istikh ara (Snouck Hurgronje’s Mekka, vol. ii. p. 139), although such practices are forbidden by orthodox Islam.

In Egypt and all the Near East the easiest way to divine God’s will is by use of the rosary. It is related of one of the wives of Mohammed that she said: “The Prophet taught us istikh ara, i.e. to know what is best, just as he taught us verses from the Book, and if any of you wants anything let him perform ablution and pray two rak‘as and read the verse: ‘There is no other God, etc.’” To use the rosary in this way the following things must be observed: The rosary must be grasped within the palms of both hands, which are then rubbed together; then the F atiha is solemnly repeated, after which the user breathes upon the rosary with his breath in order to put the magic-power of the sacred chapter into the beads. Then he seizes a particular bead and counts toward the “pointer” bead, using the words, God, Mohammed, Abu Jahl; when the count terminates with the name of God it means that his request is favourably received; if it terminates with Abu Jahl it is bad, and if with Mohammed the reply is doubtful. Others consider it more correct to use these words: Adam, Eve, the devil. When these words are used, the Adam bead signifies approval, the devil bead disapproval, and the Eve bead uncertainty, because woman’s judgment is fickle. ¹⁰ For the origin and degeneration of istakh ara (which began as a prayer and ended in a grovelling superstition), see the article by Goldziher in the Encyclopædia of Islam.

III. This brings us to a third use of the rosary, which can only be described as animistic superstition. When we remember the high idealism with which Edwin Arnold has clothed the ninety-nine names of Allah in his book on the Moslem rosary, entitled Pearls of the Faith, we enter a word of protest against the use of such glorious names for magic and sorcery.

In Java the rosary is used as follows, for healing the sick, or (in black magic) for inducing sickness: With the rosary in the hand, one reads any chapter from the Koran up to the fifteenth verse (this verse always contains a word of talismanic power), and while this verse is being read the rosary is counted and the result follows.

In Egypt the rosary is widely used for the cure of the sick. In this case it depends on the material from which the beads are manufactured. Those made of ordinary wood or of mother-of-pearl are not valuable, but a rosary made of jet (yusr) or kuk (a particular kind of wood from Mecca ) is valuable. In Egypt , both among Copts and Moslems, the rosary is used for the cure of “retention of urine” in children. It is put on the infant’s neck, or is laid on the roof in the starlight to catch the dew, then it is washed and the water given to the child to drink.

In Turkey there are rosaries made of gall-stones or other intestinal stones of sheep and cattle. These are supposed to have great medicinal value. In the Patton collection there is a specimen which was used as a sovereign remedy against gall-stones!

“In India ,” writes Mr. K. I. Khan of Poona , “the rosary is used to protect against the evil eye and other dangers. Sometimes it is washed in water and the water given as medicine to the sick to drink.”

Edward Westermarck, in his book on Ritual and Belief in Morocco, tells of the baraka, holiness or blessed virtue, that resides in sacred places, trees, persons, garments and other objects, but especially in the rosary. Baraka is a quality that not only exists but can be transmitted by touch, rubbing, effusion, etc. It is induced in the person, place or object by some special devotion or prayer or miracle of grace, and then abides as a sign of God’s favour. Westermarck has filled three chapters with evidence of the wide prevalence of this idea of baraka, its manifold manifestations, and its extreme sensitiveness; i.e. it is easily lost by contact with the impure and the unholy. ¹¹ Now it is self-evident, by the laws of baraka, that constant prayer brings baraka into the rosary of a devout Moslem. ¹² A person may swear not only by the Koran or by a volume of sacred tradition, such as Bukhari, but by the rosary which he holds in his hand, saying: “I speak truth by these hundred witnesses.” If he swears by another person’s rosary he says: “By those hundred witnesses.” The expression stands for the hundred beads. ¹³ The rosary of a saint may even be used, when grasped, to offer asylum for a culprit or to confirm a covenant. If a person has taken refuge at a shrine, his sheikh or governor may induce him to leave it by sending him his rosary as ‘ahd (covenant-promise); he is then safe from persecution for some time at least. And when a boy keeps away from school for fear of punishment, the teacher will send him his rosary as a pledge of impunity. ¹⁴ So the rosary in Morocco and elsewhere came to represent the personality of its possessor, like a seal or ring. Widows wear the rosaries of their husbands; ¹⁵ or the rosary is buried with the dead, together with the paper called masa’ila, which contains the answers the corpse gives the examining angels, Munkir and Nakir. ¹⁶

The use of rosaries as amulets or as the carriers of amulets is quite common. By the laws of magic, they have all the virtue (baraka) of the names of Allah. ¹⁷ We may conclude this part of the subject by quoting Skeat’s words: “There are, therefore, for a Moslem three alternatives, it would seem: viz., charms, for occasions where moral pressure can be brought to bear; divination, to assist in detecting dangers which in the ordinary course must come but can be avoided; and, finally, Islam (resignation), when he has to meet the inevitable, whether it be regarded as the course of Fate or the eternal purpose of God.” ¹⁸

IV. The form and material of the rosary vary. In a remarkable collection of rosaries made by Dr. Cornelius H. Patton, of the American Board, Boston , and now in our Museum, Theological Seminary, Princeton , N. J., there are forty specimens of Moslem rosaries. The most common form is that having ninety-nine beads, separated into three divisions of thirty-three beads, each with a longer bead or pointer. There is, however, another variety less commonly used with two hundred and one pellets or beads to correspond to the two hundred and one names given to Mohammed the Prophet. ¹⁹ Then we have the shorter rosary of thirty-three beads, and the longer ones of five hundred or one thousand beads. The two ends of the string, made of gold thread, cotton or silk, in nearly every case are passed through two small ornamental beads, and then through a fusiform tube of the same size and material as the rosary beads, terminating in a knot or tassel, black, red, or green in colour. The material used consists of date-stones or other hard seeds, shells, jet, olive wood, Indian balsam, ivory, mother-of-pearl, horn, bone, agate, chalcedony, amber (very seldom metal) or precious stones. ²⁰ The intrinsic value is not as important as the religious value; the latter depends rather on the place of origin or manufacture. Rosaries from Mecca , Medina , Kerbela , Najaf and other shrines are greatly prized. The same is true when the rosary has been used by a saint or weli. Tasb ih or “Conversation Beads” are used by the Turks, Egyptians and by some Greek and Armenians as a means of occupying the hands while conversing or walking, like the “swagger stick” of the soldier. While not in use, they are carried in the pocket. They consist of thirty-three beads, one-third the number used in the Mohammedan rosary. These are often made of amber. A specimen in the Patton collection (No. 47) is of real amber, but rough hewn, cut out probably by the hands of Anatolian camel-drivers. “It contains only thirty-three beads. This does not mean that it is not a Moslem rosary, for you see many rosaries in the hands of Turkish Moslems containing only thirty-three beads. In order to complete the circuit of the ninety-nine names, they count it over three times.”

One of the rarest specimens in the Patton collection is an alfiyah from Constantinople (No. 56). It is a Naqshabandi darvish tasb ih of very small beads of olive wood, nine hundred and ninety-nine in number, divided into nine sections of one hundred each, and one of ninety-nine, by means of elongated beads. There is the usual parent-bead (or minaret), to which is attached a counter string of ten beads. The unique features are this counter and the smallness of the beads. This rosary is so delicate that it can be slipped into a vest pocket, and by means of the counter-string the user can keep tally of ten thousand petitions. Another specimen from Turkey has two small discs, setting off the first ten and the last ten beads, for the purpose of registering the completion of the rounds of the rosary, by the loose rings on the divisional beads and the terminal bead.

There is a tradition regarding the pointer, or minaret bead (also called imam), in the rosary. It is supposed to represent the great name of Allah, which is not known to ordinary mortals. Solomon knew it, and could therefore bid the jinn do his bidding. Some say that the hundredth bead is called the camel, and the story is that only the camel knows the hundredth name of God, and he refuses to tell; whence comes his look of scornful superiority!

V. For those who desire to speak of Christ, there is no easier and more effective point of contact with Moslems than their prayer-life and the rosary. A tract written many years ago, entitled “Do You Pray?” passed through seven editions. Two other tracts for Moslems, that attract and do not repel, deal with the ninety-nine names of God and ninety-nine titles of Jesus Christ. ²1 Although worship in Islam is often mechanical and formal, the first step is to lead them to see the higher realm of prayer as communion with God. A special study of the language of prayer and the prayer-life of the common people is now being made by a group of missionaries in Cairo .

Miss C. E. Padwick writes: “Several excellent books on Christian prayer have been published in Arabic, to the great benefit of the Christian Church in Arabic lands. May such books continue and multiply! But when put into the hands of Moslems (unless those educated in Christian schools) these books have proved to be nearly unintelligible. Not only are the fundamental thoughts of Moslem readers about God and about prayer very different from those of the Christian writers, but through the centuries the Church has developed her own Arabic Christian vocabulary, and even when she uses the same word as the Moslem, she may read into it a Christian meaning of which he knows nothing. The first and most obvious example of this is the very word ‘sal at,’ which for the Moslem means the prescribed prayers of the five hours, and for the Christian is full of many rich and delicate meanings.

“As evangelists and as producers of literature, we clearly need to come closer to the thoughts of our Moslem brothers on this subject of prayer. We are planning to study together the actual words and phrases used today by Arabic-speaking Moslems in prayer and about prayer, with the occasions and ways in which they are used, and the fullest information we can come by of their meaning to those who use them.”

Such an investigation will lead to sympathetic approach, and has promise of fruitful results. I once met a Moslem, belonging to one of the Sufi orders, who lived in poverty. As I entered his room he was earnestly counting his ninety-nine rosary-beads, each one representing one of the beautiful names of Allah. When we spoke together of these attributes and their significance to the seeker after God, and how Al-Ghazali and other mystics taught that we were to meditate on God’s character in order to imitate His mercy, compassion and kindness, he turned to me and said: “After all, one does not need a rosary to count the ninety-nine names; they are graven on our hands.” Then spread his palms and pointed to the Arabic numerals IV (eighty-one) and VI (eighteen)—the deep marks in the left and every right hand—the two making a total of ninety-nine. “And,” said he, “that is why we spread our hands open in supplication, reminding Allah of all His merciful attributes, as we plead His grace.”

Then I told him of the scars of Jesus, and how He bore our sins on the tree. “I will not forget thee . . . behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”