Muslim, on the authority of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, states that Muhammad asked, 'Is ¹ any one of you unable to gain a thousand good deeds every day?' One of his intimate friends said to him: How shall one of us gain a thousand good deeds?' Muhammad replied: 'He will repeat سبحان الله a hundred times, accordingly a thousand good deeds will be ascribed to him, or a thousand sins will be remitted to him.' Similarly Muhammad said: 'Whoever ² says, "There is no god but God alone: He has no partner: to Him belongs the sovereignty and to Him belongs praise, and He is able to do everything", a hundred times in a day, he [has gained merit] equivalent to [that of ransoming] ten serfs, and a hundred good deeds are ascribed to him, and a hundred evil deeds are obliterated for him, and it will be to him a protection from Satan on that day of his until evening falls; and no one brings anything better than he does except a man who does more than he.' Abu Su'aid and Abu Huraira say that Muhammad affirmed: 'Whosoever ² says, "There is no god but God", and "God is Most Great", his Lord justifies him.' He also ² stated that, if in his sickness a man repeated three words, together with the other three phrases, 'There is no god but God alone: He has no partner,' and 'There is no god but God: to Him belongs the sovereignty, and to Him is praise', and 'There is no god but God,

and there is no might nor is there any power but in God', then, if the man died, hell-fire would not devour him. Another Tradition says: 'Whosoever ¹ says سبحان الله a hundred times in the morning and a hundred times in the evening, he is like one who has made a hundred pilgrimages: and whoso says الحمد لله a hundred times in the morning and a hundred times in the evening, he is like one who has carried burdens upon a hundred horses in the way of God (i.e. in a jihad), and whoso pronounced the tahlil a hundred times in the morning and a hundred times in the evening, he is like one who has set free a hundred serfs of the descendants of Ishmael: and whoso says الله اكبر a hundred times in the morning and a hundred times in the evening, no one on that day has brought more than he has brought except him who has said the like or has exceeded what he has said.' ²

These Traditions and others like them do not make any special mention of faith, though no doubt they imply its existence. What they do insist upon is that the mere repetition of certain Arabic phrases earns a large store of merit and even gains salvation for the person who repeats them. It is hardly necessary to point out to our readers that the same kind of teaching about