Tahlil

The Tahlīl (Arabic: تهليل‎‎, tahlil, Arabic pronunciation: [tahli:l] ), is a form of dhikr by uttering sentence لا اله الاّ الله ("Lā ilāha illā -llāh"; There is no deity but God).

The term Tahlīl is a verbal noun (or mashdar, Arabic: المصدر‎‎) from basic word هَلَّلَ (Hallala) which literally means to praise or to acclaim.

Traditionally, the utterance of the sentence is part of Shahada performed by somebody converting to Islam. Later on, it becomes tradition especially in sufism as one of its rituals, such as an event remembering a dead muslim. Tahlil as a ritual to remember the dead is considered a bid'ah by Salafi muslims.

In Indonesia and Malaysia, the Tahlil ritual becomes a tradition called Kenduri, especially during death ritual. The tradition is more common among muslims of NU.

Narrated by Abu Huraira: The Messenger of Allah said, "He who utters a hundred times in a day these words: `La ilaha illallahu, wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamdu, wa Huwa `ala kulli sha'in Qadir (there is no true god except Allah. He is One and He has no partner with Him; His is the sovereignty and His is the praise, and He is Omnipotent),' he will have a reward equivalent to that for emancipating ten slaves, a hundred good deeds will be recorded to his credit, hundred of his sins will be blotted out from his scroll, and he will be safeguarded against the devil on that day till the evening; and no one will exceed him in doing more excellent good deeds except someone who has recited these words more often than him) (as described in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim).

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