What is Tasbeeh?

Bismillah.

Alhamdulillah, we now know what hamd means, let’s move on to tasbeeh!

Tasbeeh means to say subhanAllah just as tahmeed means to sayalhamdulillah.

Tasbeeh is comprised of two words: Subhan and Allah: سبحان الله

Subhan which is derived from tasbeeh is from seen-ba-ha (س-ب-ح) and it means to glorify, praise, magnify, extol Allah, by tongue or by heart. It includes:

1-To say He has no flaw in His Perfection Far above any imperfection

2-He is far above and beyond any similarity to His Creation

3-He is free from and above all kinds of association and any un-divine attributes.

When one does tasbeeh, they negate any flaw and affirm all perfection in Allah azza wa jal, He is Flawless.

Another meaning of the root seen-ba-ha is the act of swimming, floating, and being quick and swift as well as being remote. How does this connect with glorifying Allah? It denotes the ‘quickness’ in betaking oneself to Allah, in agility in serving and obeying Him. When doing tasbeeh, you affirm (i.e., keep afloat) the Perfection of Allah ta’ala and His disassociation to His creation. It is used for prompt obedience, comes out immediately. An immediate reaction. Imagine when you see something amazing, right away, you say: “subhanAllah!”

So when we say “SubhanAllah” the meaning is:I declare (or celebrate, extol) the remoteness, or freedom, of Allah from any imperfection or impurity or from anything derogatory from His glory. From the imputation of there being an equal to Him, or any companion, or anything like unto Him, or anything contrary to Him, from everything that should not be imputed to Him.

Say subhanAllah.