Should a Tasbih Be Used During Bandagi? (5 Min. Read)

Beyond the Tasbih: The Inner Discipline and Purpose of Baytu'l-Khayal 'Ibadat (Meditation)

Nov 04, 2025

Many members of our Ismaili Jamat — both young and old — have wondered: “Should we use a tasbih (rosary, prayer beads) during bandagi (meditation)?”

Some are unsure whether this sacred practice requires the tasbih, while others have found it difficult to concentrate during the otherwise silent hour of meditation in the Baytu’l-Khayal (House of Meditation), noting that the sound of beads used by others can be distracting and disruptive.

This uncertainty stems from a lack of awareness of the clear guidance given by our 48th Imam, Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah⁽ᶜ⁾, who addressed this matter directly in a farman delivered in 1908:

“The use of the tasbih has been discontinued [during bandagi] so that your concentration (dhyan) may remain unbroken and undistracted. What difficulty is caused by using the tasbih? When you use it, your attention tends to be on the counting and on the beads themselves —that is why the tasbih has been set aside [during the time of bandagi]. If you cannot do it [i.e., concentrate in bandagi without the use of the tasbih] then why did you take up this spiritual practice?”
— Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah⁽ᶜ⁾, Khangi Farman, Farman No. 16, Poona, June 28, 1908.

The Imam’s words make it abundantly clear that bandagi — the silent meditation practiced within Baytu’l-Khayal — is meant to be a state of pure and uninterrupted inner focus, free from all outward aids and physical distractions.

The purpose of Baytu’l-Khayal ‘ibadat is to turn the heart and mind wholly toward the remembrance of Allah through the Ism-i Azam — the Supreme Name of God — bestowed by the Imam. For those who have not yet received the Ism-i Azam (also referred to as the bol or jap), another Divine Name may be used to focus the mind in this sacred and esoteric act of worship.

The physical tasbih, while deeply meaningful in other forms of devotion in Ismailism, is not intended for this inward practice. During bandagi, its use diverts attention, both of the one who uses it and of others nearby, who are striving to free themselves from external and internal distractions. The goal is a state of stillness and absorption — where the tongue is silent, the body is calm, and the heart calls wholly upon its Lord. In this sacred silence, the mu’min’s soul ascends spiritually toward “He who is above all else,” through the Light of the Imam and deep contemplation of the bol and its meaning. As our 49th Imam, Mawlana Shah Karim⁽ᶜ⁾ advised:

“When you sit in bandagi, try and eliminate from your minds material considerations and concentrate on the meaning of the bol. Sit and eliminate from your minds worldly matters and concentrate on the meaning, and on seeking to come close to ‘He who is above all else’.”
— Mawlana Shah Karim⁽ᶜ⁾, Baytu’l-Khayal Mulaqat, Dacca, Bangladesh, November 18, 1977.
“Concentrate on the bol. Seek to come close spiritually to ‘He who is above all else’, through the Light of Hazrat ‘Ali. Search out that Light and seek to come close to ‘He who is above all else’, for that is the meaning of the bol. Symbolically, therefore, concentrate on the word, and seek through the word to come close, and closer, and closer to ‘He who is above all else’.”
— Mawlana Shah Karim⁽ᶜ⁾, Baytu’l-Khayal Mulaqat, Karachi, Karimabad Jamatkhana (2nd Floor), Pakistan, November 12, 1991.

While bandagi shares similarities with dhikr — the remembrance or recollection of Allah, which may sometimes be accompanied by the tasbih — this special form of ‘ibadat practiced in the Baytu’l-Khayal is distinct: it emphasizes concentration, contemplation, and spiritual perception or inner vision (basirat). Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah⁽ᶜ⁾ further explains:

“One who performs ‘ibadat (worship or meditation) must certainly receive benefit from it. Likewise, a sense of joy and inner peace should surely arise within the heart. There are, however, five or six reasons because of which a person fails to gain that benefit — until those causes are removed, no true result can be attained.
If, during ‘ibadat, your attention (dhyan) is distracted by your surroundings, by the tasbih (prayer beads), or by any other outward thing, then no benefit will come. During ‘ibadat, you must sit calmly, setting aside all thoughts of “here” and “there,” and remain silent and inwardly composed. Your tongue should not move.
Keep firmly in your remembrance (yad rakhjo) the sacred invocation (pavitra jap) that has been given to you — its surat (spiritual form) will appear to you. Just as when you remember the sun, its image appears in your khayal (imagination or imaginal faculty — i.e., inner eye) in the same way, when you turn your contemplation toward the nakhsh (the written form of the ism-i a‘zam), it is in truth the Divine Form that you behold.
The nakhsh and Name that We have given you—keep both well in remembrance (yad karjo). Perform one full hour of meditation (‘ibadat) with single-minded concentration (ek dhyan), without letting your thoughts (khayal) wander to “here” or “there.”
A true mu’min (believer) must also be steadfast in offering the dasond (tithe).
— Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah⁽ᶜ⁾, Khangi Farman, Farman No. 49, Dar es Salaam, February 4, 1937.

In light of these blessed farmans, we understand that the true essence of Baytu’l-Khayal ‘ibadat lies beyond all outward forms and physical expressions. It is a discipline of inner stillness — the body at rest, the tongue silent, and the heart awakened in remembrance of the Divine through the Ism-i Azam. In this state, one gradually and esoterically “dies” to the world — withdrawing from all distraction and fleeting thought — until one’s being is absorbed in the Light of the Imam and the soul merges with the spiritual reality (haqiqat) of the Name itself.

The Imam’s instruction to set aside the tasbih applies only to the inner discipline of bandagi, where even sacred aids can disturb the deep concentration needed for union. Outside this practice, however, the Imams encourage using the tasbih — carrying it and pausing for moments of dhikr to remember Allah, the Prophet, and the Imams. Daily devotion may be enhanced by the prayer beads, though dhikr can also be performed without them.

Thus, while the tasbih may support or remind us of our daily remembrance, the meditation of Baytu’l-Khayal ‘ibadat stands apart as an ascent into divine intimacy — a silent communion in which the soul, freed from all else, turns wholly toward its Lord through the Light and Name revealed by the Imam of the Time. In such remembrance — “in rapt meditation” — one’s consciousness may, by Divine grace, be illumined, elevated, and transformed eternally.

As Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah⁽ᶜ⁾ beautifully expressed in the closing reflection of his Memoirs:

“Life in the ultimate analysis has taught me one enduring lesson. The subject should always disappear in the object. In our ordinary affections one for another, in our daily work with hand or brain, we most of us discover soon enough that any lasting satisfaction, any contentment that we can achieve, is the result of forgetting self, of merging subject with object in a harmony that is of body, mind, and spirit.

And in the highest realms of consciousness all who believe in a Higher Being are liberated from all the clogging and hampering bonds of the subjective self in prayer, in rapt meditation upon and in the face of the glorious radiance of⁣ eternity, in which all temporal and earthly consciousness is swallowed up and itself becomes⁣ the eternal.”
— Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III⁽ᶜ⁾, The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and Time, 334-335.

Yā ‘Alī Madad,
Khayāl ‘Aly
November 4, 2025

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