What's the ruling on using rosary beads for dhikr?

Naṣāʾiḥ of Ibn Muneer - 0004

Q: Fulan, Famagusta TRNC. What about using rosary beads?

A: Me personally, I don't use rosary beads, nor do I advise people to use rosary beads. I would say make the tasbeeh with your right hand, make it with your right hand. Some people even say with the left hand, they say the hand. That’s the best thing to do. Do I consider it to be a bid’ah? Haram to use rosary beads? No. For several reasons. If you’re making a dhikr, saying tasbeeh a hundred times, a thousand times, a million times, and you say it like this and you’re spinning and dancing and you twirl in a black room and this gets me closer to Allah when I make the tasbeeh like this I’m with the the Rahman, that’s bid’ah. That is a bid’ah. You’ve now (arabic) you’ve fell into bidah now. By believing in making things up and specifying, but if you use something as a calculator, you calculating money, I can count with my hands, I can count with stones, I can use a calculator, I can use an abacus, these things are nothing more than a what? A means of reaching a calculation, a sum. Everybody understand this? It matters not how you count the money, you owe me $50 you said $100, whether you counted it with a marker, a pin, rock, stones, it doesn’t what? (audience replies) What’s important is how much you owe me. So why do people use rosary beads? Do they use these beads to make a specific dhikr? Then that’s a problem. Or do they use the beads as a means, a (?سبب) of counting the number of, tasbeeh or tahmeed or etc. So it’s a huge difference between the what? Between the two. Between what is being made up and innovated and between the means of doing something which is from the Sunnah so therefore I don’t consider rosary beads to be a bid’ah, just like many ulema of the past don’t consider them to be a bid’ah, rather you’ll find some narrations of some of the Sahaba, some of the Tabi’een, some of the ulema of the past. They had strings, they had ropes, you find these narrations. So to say that it’s a bid’ah, I don’t necessarily agree with that, some people say that it is, and some of the ulema they explain that it’s permissible to use the rosary beads and there's nothing wrong with them. My personal preference, my personal advice is not to what? Use them. The big problem is, and why I’m answering a question like this, is that because we have a understanding and a practice of severe immaturity. Severe immaturity. A person has a little bit of knowledge, he studied overseas, if he’s even studied overseas for a little bit of time, and he takes these different sporadic issues, these (masail-fiqhiyya), these (far-i-yat), witr, qunoot, moving the finger, hands on the chest, hands beneath the chest, and he takes these issues and he makes them the core, upon which he show love and upon which he shows hatred. They say there’s a sadaqa box in the masjid, it’s a bid’ah to have a sadaqa box, so the masjid is upon baatil. What is this? What is the difference between a person putting money in a box, and the hadith in which they put the money in front of the Prophet ﷺ? It’s a means of collecting and gathering. Are we worshipping the sadaqa box? Are we saying the sadaqa box has a greater reward? It gets us closer to Allah? It’s a hundred times- That’s bid’ah ya akhi. Not a worldly means. Like this what? Microphone. Did the Prophet have a microphone? Did the Salaf have a microphone? So it’s a what? Linguistically it’s a bid’ah, it’s a novelty, it’s an innovation. What’s the difference between me speaking on a microphone and me saying “hey can you hear me in the back?”. I’m amplifying my what? (audience replies “your voice”) There’s no difference. Everybody clear on this or not? And the same applies to rosary beads and other things. And even if it was a bid’ah to have rosary beads, or to have a sadaqa box, that isn’t an issue and a reason behind you making your love and hatred based there upon. Your wala and your barah is based off these masail of ijtihad. That’s stupidity. And this is something that had befallen many many people. Scholars, students and du’aat. And at the bottom of the totem pole, the lowest of the low is the general 9-5 sheeple that have been fed this poison, “he’s a Salafi because you have this and you have that” “You’re not a Salafi because such and such and such and such” “and this is a bid’ah” “and that’s a bid’ah” and everything’s a bidah. They can’t even recite alif baa taa. They can’t recite the Fatiha properly without making fifty mistakes. They haven’t studied, they haven’t read, they haven’t benefited from the ulema, truly. This is a horrible thing that we’re living in huh? And it’s not just about being harsh. Brothers they say they’re harsh, it’s not about harshness, it’s about you being mistaken. And then upon your ignorance and immaturity now you’re? Harsh. So you have two black eyes. Wallahi it wouldn’t be a problem if someone was harsh upon the haqq. He’s a little harsh, but at least he’s accurate in what he’s saying, he’s scientific, he’s knowledge-based what’s he’s saying. (arabic) “That’s a bid’ah” “Ittaqillah ya akhi, this is haram, you can’t do this.”  “And this is the clear-cut daleel from the Kitab, Sunnah and Ijma’.” That’s not as bad as someone who’s mistaken, saying you have to put your hands on your chest, you have to do this, you have to do that. Read the kalam of Imam Ahmad, read the kalam of this one, this Sahaba so on and so forth, it’s like night and day. So a person doesn’t have sufficient knowledge, they have inadequate knowledge, they have scholastic immaturity, and they’re harsh. And fanatical. And hasty. And they have overkill. Khalas ya’ni who’s gonna come to the Sunnah now? Who wants to learn the Sunnah, who wants to be upon the Sunnah? This is the times in which we live. May Allah help us all. So I’m warning from this, I’m warning from this. Learn, study, read, benefit, learn in a proper systematic way, go to the course, scratch beneath the surface. And بِإِذْنِ اللَّه تَعَالَىٰ, do it with sincerity for Allah, and with an empty cup, get rid of what you think you know. Get rid of what you’ve been taught in this masjid and by this person and learn from the correct sources and the proper way for years and then بِإِذْنِ اللَّه تَعَالَىٰ, perhaps you can come with a conclusion, with a opinion, with a view, huh? And Allah knows best.

Note: This advice of "Mufti" "Abu Ramlah" Muhammad Ibn Muneer Abdul-Hameed was transcribed from hadithdisciple live - 05-30-2018 q&a - YouTube (12:14) (alternative link)
Video streamed live on May 30, 2018

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