The Litany of Divine Oneness

Known across the Muslim world for Dal¿¿il al-Khayr¿t, Imam al-Jaz¿l¿ also left behind other works whose quiet influence travelled through circles of recitation and teaching. Hizb al-Taw¿¿d is one of them. While similar books explain theology, Imam al-Jaz¿l¿ with this Hizb insists on the art of reciting one's beliefs to solidify them in one's heart. Creedal beliefs stated behind a cadence that lingers in the memory long after the page is closed. In these verses, al-Jaz¿l¿ gathered the Names and meanings by which generations of Muslims remembered God in moments of gratitude, fear, and true companionship throughout the Muslim world.Hizb al-Taw¿¿d belongs to that old world where knowledge was recited and taken to heart before it was analyzed, and where a poem could become the daily sustenance for a believer's inner life. This translation is an attempt to carry something of that world into English without disturbing its merits.