versions of the hadith of Abū Hurayrah: “You glorify Allah, proclaim His greatness, and praise Him (1) after every prayer thirty-three times: eleven, eleven, and eleven—making thirty-three in all.” It appears that this form results from a narrator’s intervention and interpretation, for the wording of the hadith is: “You glorify Allah, proclaim His greatness, and praise Him after every prayer thirty-three times” (2). What is meant is thirty-three repetitions of each of (3) the formulas of glorification, proclamation of Allah’s greatness, and praise (4). That is, you say (5): “Glory be to Allah,” “Praise be to Allah,” and “Allah is the Greatest” thirty-three times. For the narrator of this hadith is Sumayy, who transmitted it from Abū Sālih al-Sammān, and this is how Abū Sālih explained it to him: Say, “Glory be to Allah, praise be to Allah, and Allah is the Greatest,” until all three have been said thirty-three times.
As for specifying eleven repetitions, this has no parallel in any of the formulas of remembrance, unlike one hundred, for which there are parallels. Ten repetitions likewise have parallels, as recorded in the Sunan collections (6) in the hadith of
(1) This is the reading here and below in all the manuscripts and in Sahīh Muslim. The printed edition reads: “wa-tahmadūna wa-tukabbirūna” (“and you praise Allah and proclaim His greatness”).
(2) Muslim (595/142).
(3) The word min (“of”) is supplied from ق and ن. Someone also added it in ع.
(4) مب reads: “wa-l-tahmīd wa-l-takbīr” (“and praising Allah and proclaiming His greatness”).
(5) The initial letter of the present-tense verb is undotted in ج and ن. ص and ك read: “yaqūlū” (“they say”). ق retains the nūn marking the indicative but leaves the initial letter undotted. ع originally read “taqūl” (“you say”), which someone changed to “taqūlūn” (“you [plural] say”). مب reads: “qūlū” (“say!”).
(6) Recorded by al-Tirmidhī (3474) and al-Nasā’ī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā (9877, 9878), through several chains from Shahr ibn Hawshab, from ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Ghanm, from Abū Dharr, as a report attributed to the Prophet. However, Ahmad (17990) records it from Ibn Ghanm as a mursal report from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), with the wording “after the Maghrib prayer.” Al-Dāraqutnī preferred this version and attributed the inconsistency in transmission to Shahr. For details, see ‘Ilal al-Dāraqutnī (966, 1109) and Natā’ij al-Afkār (2/321–322).