100 names, five stories

There seems to be general agreement among those who discuss the 99 Islamic names for Allah that the 100th name of Allah is “hidden” or mysterious. Sufis and others may meditate on the “mystery” of the 100th name as a symbol of God’s transcendence, or as a symbol of the true nature of God, which the other 99 names only attempt to describe.

This is relevant to the rosary in a sort of indirect way: the ideal way to recite the Islamic tasbih, which is often called the Islamic "rosary," is to recite the 99 names of Allah, one per bead.

Until now, I have known four different stories about the 100th name.

I should make it clear that, as far as I know, all of these are folk tales or speculations, rather than established theology. I am not Muslim, and I wouldn't presume to say whether any of them have any basis in Islamic theology or not. Some are clearly intended to be humorous.

Here are the four stories, which I'm repeating from one of my earlier posts:

• The 100th name of Allah is known only to angels, since it's too holy to be entrusted to human beings.

• The 100th name will be revealed by the Mahdi (the prophesied redeemer of Islam) at the end of time.

• Allah will reveal the 100th name in the heart of each true believer who devoutly prays the other 99 names.

• The 100th name is known only to camels.(!)

Someone recently sent me a fifth story.

The story goes that whoever invokes Allah by his mysterious 100th name, all his prayers shall be granted.

Now at the present time, the only one who knows this 100th name is Satan, and Satan intends to use this on the Day of Judgement to have all his sins forgiven.

But what Satan doesn't know is that on Judgement Day, Allah will make him forget the 100th name...

(Personally, I still like the one about camels the best. It would explain such a lot... ;)

Islamic rosaries: how early?

islamic rosaries, part iii

As with the Christian rosary, there are a number of conflicting stories about how and when prayer beads began to be used by Muslims.

Islamic scholars derive teaching not only from the Koran, but also from collections of hadith, usually referred to as "traditions." A hadith was originally just an Arabic story. As the stories began to be used more formally, it became common to provide each story with an isnad or lineage. The isnad is the list of who heard this story from whom, reaching back to the original teller of the story, whether the Prophet himself or one of his followers.

The reliability of each hadith, of course, depends on each scholar in the chain and whether they have transmitted the text correctly. As one would expect, modern Islamic scholars can and do differ on whether a particular hadith is authoritative or not.

As I mentioned in the first post in this series, there are certainly hadith in the generally accepted collections that mention the use of loose stones, date-kernels, etc., in counting prayers. At least two of them mention the Prophet himself as recommending counted prayers (though not beads).

I've actually found one somewhat-helpful source online: Studies in Popular Islam: Collection of Papers dealing with the Superstitions and Beliefs of the Common People, by Samuel M. Zwemer, Emeritus Professor of Religion and Christian Missions at Princeton Theological Seminary.

I do use this with caution, since it was published (as you might guess from the title) in 1939, before scholarship about the Middle Ages was really well established.

Zwemer comments that there is evidence that the use of prayer beads in Islam was an innovation introduced centuries after Mohammed. He quotes Goldziher (in his book Vorlesungen über den Islam), who says the rosary was not generally adopted until after the third century of the Hegira. "When a rosary was found in the possession of a certain pious saint, Abu-l-Qasim al-Junaid, who died in 297 of the Hegira (910 AD)," says Goldziher, "they attacked him for using it, although he belonged to the best society. 'I cannot give up,' said he, 'a thing that serves to bring me nearer to God.' Abu 'Abdullah Mohammed al-'Abdari, the learned author of Al-Mudkhal, who died as late as 737 AH (1337 AD), mentions the rosary as one of the "strange new practices" in Islam which should not be countenanced."



But most of the references I've found to early Islamic prayer beads look rather doubtful to me.

To briefly mention one, a May 2006 press release (Telegraph, UK) about an excavated shipwreck in Jakarta says that its cargo, which sank sometime close to 970 AD, included "Islamic rosary beads, and a mold to mass-produce small metal tags with three of the 99 names of God."

This would be very interesting if true, since it pre-dates the current earliest evidence for Islam in Malaysia by about 300 years, and suggests Islam could have been brought to Malaysia from China. Unfortunately the cargo is currently tied up in legal disputes and isn't available to scholars. Without more description, it's impossible to say why the finds are identified specifically as Islamic rosaries.

Another mention that causes me to raise my eyebrows is from an article in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1965, by Sami K. Hamarneh. He is describing a very interesting historical document, a treatise on healing from Spain, by the Arabic author known as Abulcasis (who died in about 1013 AD).

The 19th of the thirty volumes of the treatise is mostly about compounding perfumes, drugs, oils and spices for both medical and cosmetic purposes. One of the chapters on cosmetics has "an elaborate discussion of how to make medicated rosaries, necklaces, and beads of ambergris, musk, camphor, and clove." The recipes mentioned include one for beads of musk and another for cloves macerated in rosewater and held together with gum arabic.

However, again, the author doesn't say why he has made the conceptual leap from beads to "rosaries." I would want to see whether the word "rosaries" (tasbih or subha) is actually mentioned in the Arabic original.

(to be continued)

...99, 100

islamic rosaries, part ii

I'm having an interesting time pursuing the history of the Islamic rosary: there's a lot more information on the Internet now than there was when I first went looking, several years ago.

However, I've come to realize that the sources have to be read very carefully, because while they do sometimes mention a specific number of prayers or the concept of counting the number of times a prayer is repeated, it's important not to read these as saying something about beads, when they may not actually mention beads at all.

After all, for all we know, the prayers are being counted with a pile of pebbles, or one one's fingers, or perhaps with some other type of counting device. (I was amused, by the way, to note that modern Muslims can now buy an "electronic tasbih," just as modern Catholics can buy one or another type of "electronic rosary" prayer counter.)

In fact, the Prophet Mohammed says in one hadith that counting on one's fingers is actually better, because your fingers will be available to "testify" on your behalf on Judgement Day. Islamic rosary beads apparently were controversial when they were first introduced, and there are still conservative Moslem authors today who maintain that counting prayers on anything other than one's fingers is an unjustifiable "innovation," and therefore harmful. (The theory being that the Prophet's revelations already provide everything a believer needs, so "innovations" are unnecessary and bad.)



Nonetheless, I think we have established that, assuming the hadith has been accurately transmitted, the practice of saying a specific number of repetitions of prayers does indeed go back to the first companions of Mohammed, if perhaps not to the Prophet himself.

the names of God

The 99 beads in an Islamic rosary stand for the 99 names, or attributes, of Allah (God). Allah is variously described in the Koran as "the merciful," "the All-Powerful," "the Giver of Honor," and so forth. Islamic scholars at an early date scoured the Koran for such titles and compiled an official list of 99, though there are some minor disputes about the exact list. This fulfills the tradition mentioned in the Sahih Muslim, Volume 3, Book 50, Hadith Number 894:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "Allah has ninety-nine names, i.e. one-hundred minus one, and whoever knows them will go to Paradise."

The ideal way to recite the Islamic rosary is to repeat the 99 names of Allah, one per bead. But just as the Christian rosary originated as a "short cut" for reciting the 150 psalms, so there is a prescribed set of short, easily memorized prayers for those Muslims who haven't learned all 99 names of Allah by heart. This consists in saying "Subhan Allah" (sublime is God) 33 times, "Al-hamdulillah" (praise to God) 33 times, and "Allahu Akbar" (God is most great) 33 times.

In a full Islamic rosary string, therefore, there are 99 beads, often with two extra "marker" beads after the 33rd and 66th regular bead. The loop is closed by one terminal bead that is usually elongated in shape and often bears a tassel. This terminal bead is sometimes called a "leader," or it may be compared metaphorically to a minaret, the tower from which the call to prayer is sounded.

A shorter version of the rosary may have only 33 beads. While many people maintain that the "worry beads" carried by many people in Muslim cultures have no religious significance, the fact that they also come in strings of 33 points to their likely origin as a rosary string.



There are various ways of saying the Islamic rosary, just as there are the Christian rosary. To make a round number of 100, sometimes "Allahu Akbar" (God is most great) is said 34 times instead of 33, including the terminal bead.

Another way of completing the hundred comes from the Sahih Muslim, Book 004, Hadith Number 1243:
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: If anyone extols Allah after every prayer thirty-three times, and praises Allah thirty-three times, and declares His Greatness thirty-three times, ninety-nine times in all, and says to complete a hundred: "There is no god but Allah, having no partner with Him, to Him belongs sovereignty and to Him is praise due, and He is potent over everything," his sins will be forgiven even if these are as abundant as the foam of the sea.

the 100th name

There are a number of traditions about the existence of a 100th name of Allah.

There seems to be general agreement that the 100th name is "hidden" or mysterious. Sufis and others may regularly meditate on the "mystery" of the 100th name as a symbol of God's transcendence, or as a symbol of the true nature of God, which the other 99 names only attempt to describe.

So far I have heard four different theories about the 100th name.

One theory is that the 100th name of Allah is known only to angels, since it's too holy to be entrusted to human beings.

A second theory is that the 100th name will be revealed by the Mahdi (the prophesied redeemer of Islam) at the end of time.

A third theory is that Allah will reveal the 100th name in the heart of each true believer who devoutly prays the other 99 names.

The fourth theory is that the 100th name is known only to camels. When you think about it, this would actually explain quite a lot about camels, including their attitude!

Islamic rosaries

The earliest history of the Christian rosary or paternoster is something of a scholastic black hole -- there are wisps of data spiraling into the center, but very little scholarship has come out. I don't know of anyone who has investigated this early history in depth. But the early of history of Islamic prayer beads seems, as far as I can tell, to be an even bigger, blacker black hole. Most of the information I can find takes Islamic prayer beads for granted as something Muslims have "always" had, much like the state of Christian rosary scholarship several decades ago.

Part of the reason I have this impression is undoubtedly because I don't read or speak the relevant languages of the main Islamic cultural areas, most notably Arabic. I can testify that, at least, very little has been published in English about Islamic rosaries. I am also not myself a Muslim, so there are undoubtedly sources of information that I wouldn't know about. But I've asked a few Islamic scholars for help, and they have also come up blank. If anyone out there has solid information on Islamic rosaries before about 1600 AD, or 1000 AH in the Islamic dating system, I'd love to know about it.

One of the persistent myths about the European Middle Ages is the idea that the Christian Crusaders brought back new customs and ideas from their contact with Islam. In many cases this is demonstrably not true, because there is already evidence in Europe of those ideas before the Crusades. That seems to be the case with the concept of prayer beads as well. There are not a lot of earlier records of Christians using prayer beads, but there are a few.

In fact, there has been some speculation that Muslims got the idea of counting prayers on a string of beads from Christian sources -- specifically from the Eastern Christian traditions, which tend to use strings of 99 or 100 beads. The Muslim tasbih or rosary is generally either 99 or 33 beads long, as opposed to the usual European preference for groups of 10 or 50.



As far as I know, prayer beads are not mentioned in the Koran. But the idea may very well have been known to the Prophet's early followers. Collections of sayings attributed to the Prophet, known as hadith, are a major source of information about Islamic custom, thought and culture, and translations of these are appearing on the Internet, so I went looking to see what I could find.

From this translation of the Partial Sunan Abu Dawud, I found:

Book 8, Number 1495:
Narrated Sa'd ibn AbuWaqqas:

Once Sa'd, with the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him), visited a woman in front of whom were some date-stones or pebbles which she was using as a rosary to glorify Allah. He (the Prophet) said: I tell you something which would be easier (or more excellent) for you than that. He said (it consisted of saying): "Glory be to Allah" as many times as the number of that which He has created in Heaven; "Glory be to Allah" as many times as the number of that which He has created on Earth; "Glory be to Allah" as many times as the number of that which He has created between them; "Glory be to Allah" as many times as the number of that which He is creating; "Allah is most great" a similar number of times; "Praise (be to Allah)" a similar number of times; and "There is no god but Allah" a similar number of times; "There is no might and no power except in Allah" a similar number of times.

---------------------------------

Book 8, Number 1496:
Narrated Yusayrah, mother of Yasir:

The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) commanded them (the women emigrants) to be regular (in remembering Allah by saying): "Allah is most great"; "Glory be to the King, the Holy"; "there is no god but Allah"; and that they should count them on fingers, for they (the fingers) will be questioned and asked to speak.

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Book 8, Number 1497:
Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As:

I saw the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) counting the glorification of Allah on fingers.

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This passage seems to be the main source for the belief that counted prayers go back to the time of the Prophet Mohammed himself. But you'll note that the first part of it does not, in fact, involve counting, since the numbers recommended are quantities like "as many times as the number of that which He has created in Heaven" which is infinite or nearly so. (Compare the Christian "Pray without ceasing.")

The number 33 seems to come from another passage in the same collection:

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Book 8, Number 1499:
Narrated AbuHurayrah:

AbuDharr said: Prophet of Allah. The wealthy people have all the rewards; they pray as we pray; they fast as we fast; and they have surplus wealth which they give in charity; but we have no wealth which we may give in charity.

The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: AbuDharr, should I not teach you phrases by which you acquire the rank of those who excel you? No one can acquire your rank except one who acts like you.

He said: Why not, Apostle of Allah? He said: Exalt Allah (say: Allah is Most Great) after each prayer thirty-three times; and praise Him (say: Praise be to Allah) thirty-three times; and glorify Him (say: Glory be to Allah) thirty-three times, and end it by saying, "There is no god but Allah alone, there is no partner, to Him belongs the Kingdom, to Him praise is due and He has power over everything". His sins will be forgiven, even if they are like the foam of the sea.

(to be continued)

An Islamic rosary picture

An Islamic rosary

Here's a cautionary tale about rosary research.

What I'm trying to track at the moment is whether anyone knows how far back in Islam the use of beads actually extends. _Beads of Faith_ contains a quote from the prophet Mohammed: "Repeat the *Tasbih* a hundred times, and a thousand virtues shall be recorded by God for you, 10 virtuous deeds for each repetition." However I have no idea whether this has been correctly translated.

Until recently the best documentation I could find was a couple of 16th-century Safavid Persian paintings showing people with what are clearly prayer beads. _Beads of Faith_ does have a manuscript illustration which it says is a "12th century Mogul painting" showing an Islamic "saint" in India with his beads.

Oh good, I thought: 12th century is at least a start. A colleague, however, on seeing the supposed "12th-century" image I mentioned above, commented that the book's authors had obviously been misled by the Islamic dating system. From the style of the painting, it's clearly from the 18th or 19th century A.D. -- which in the Muslim dating system is approximately the 12th century _A.H._ (after the Hegira).

Unfortunately, this is not a surprise, given the general quality of the book. :(