– ‘Subḥān Allah’ is a declaration that Allah is utterly free of every defect and imperfection;
– ‘al-ḥamdu lillāh’ is an ascription to Him of all forms of praise.
Removing the negative qualities (tanzīh, disengaging from imperfection) comes before adorning with the positive (taḥliya, affirmation of perfection).

Once the servant has affirmed his Lord’s transcendence above fault and affirmed His perfection, the qualities of takbīr and taʿẓīm—magnifying and exalting Him—naturally follow, for such grandeur belongs only to the One who is flawless and worthy of every praise.

5 – His statement, “his sins are forgiven,” appears, on the surface, to be unrestricted. The majority of scholars, however, say that every hadith promising forgiveness of sins or expiation of misdeeds by virtue of righteous deeds is conditioned upon avoiding the major sins. Allah the Exalted says, “If you avoid the major sins you have been forbidden, We shall wipe away your minor misdeeds” (al-Nisāʾ 4:31). The Prophet ﷺ likewise said, “The five daily prayers, one Friday to the next, and Ramadan to Ramadan are expiations for whatever occurs between them, so long as the major sins are avoided” (Muslim 233).

If these weighty obligations—including the five daily prayers—are not strong enough to expiate the major sins, then the lesser, supererogatory acts are, a fortiori, even less capable. Al-Nawawī said: If a person has no minor sins, one may hope that his major sins will be lightened; and if he is free of those as well, then his rank is elevated thereby. Shaykh al-Islām (Ibn Taymiyyah), however, held that the unrestricted wording of expiation attached to ʿumrah encompasses the major as well as the minor sins.

6 – This remembrance is to be recited after one has completed the prescribed prayer, as the reports state. The apparent intent is that it be said while still seated; yet if he utters it after standing and while departing, he still seems to have followed the Sunnah, for nothing confines it. Should he become occupied, then remember and recite it, he likewise appears to obtain its particular reward, provided the delay was brief and excusable. But if he deliberately omits it and only makes it up after a long interval, the specific reward seems lost, though the general reward for dhikr remains.

7 – This remembrance is a means for the forgiveness of sins and the expiation of misdeeds; what is meant is the expiation of the lesser sins. As for the major sins, nothing expiates them except sincere repentance. Allah the Exalted says: “If…"