Count your breath, calculate charity! Lessons from Salaf Ulama – Darul Ma’arif Islamic Boarding School

Darulmaarif.net – Indramayu, 28 June 2025 | 10.00 WIB

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of modern life that is so fast, we rarely realize: How many times do we actually breathe a day? This question sounds trivial, but instead holds the depth of extraordinary meaning. Because of one pull and breath, our lives flow. From there too, the spirit bound and sustenance kept moving.

Medically, the number of a person’s breath depends on many factors: age, physical condition, activity, to emotions. Babies can breathe 30-60 times per minute, while adults are in a break of breathing 12-20 times per minute. That is, the average human can breathe around 17,000 to 30,000 times per dayEven more if you are active.

But interestingly, the previous scholars have observed this phenomenon, not only from the physical side, but also from the spiritual and metaphysical side. Let’s listen to how The Books of Tourots (Yellow Books) Describe this.

The number of breaths a day and night according to the ulama

In the book ‘A ḥnyiyat As-Sarqwwwī’ a 10mentioned:

Some of them say: Everyone breathes every day and one night from one hundred thousand people and twenty -four thousand moderate people, and in every moderate soul, a thousand dead and a thousand born, and the mothers carry a thousand, and in it one hundred thousand close virtues.

That is, “Some scholars say: Every human breathing a day and night as many as 124,000 average breathing (mu’tadil breath). In each of these breaths, there are 100,000 deaths, 100,000 births, 100,000 pregnancies, and for Allah there are 100,000 proceeds (furuj) close.” (Ḥāsyiyat al-Sharqāwī ‘Al-Hudhudī, p. 68, ṭ. Maktabah al-ḥaramayn)

This statement is certainly not a medical count, but Sufism and symbolic expressions who invited humans to realize that Every second of our lives is in a complicated and full secret of the Divine Destiny Network.

Other versions of Tanbīhul Ghīn and Director Nāiihi

Other books call different numbers, but still mean in. In Tanbīul ghāfilīn and addictive Durner Nāiihn Page 260, mentioned:

It is said, the hours throughout the day and that day are twenty and twenty, for someone breathing every hundred eighty breaths. At night and night, he breathed four thousand three hundred and twenty people. And in each soul asked with two questions when out and time entering.

Meaning: “It is said that day and night consist of 24 hours. Humans breathe every hour as much as 180 times. So, in a day and night, humans breathe as much as 4,320 times. And in every breath, humans will be asked two questions: when inhaling and when inhaling – what do you do to both?”

This number looks smaller than the medical standard, even far from the number 124,000 mentioned earlier. But the point is not on exact numberbut Ibrah value which contains it.

Why is it different in number? There is a wisdom behind it

When we look at it, the scholars like not focused on quantitative accuracybut use numbers as a symbol for spiritual awareness. Especially in the quote of the book Sharqawi, mentioned:

… some of them say

“Some scholars say …”

Which means this statement is not ijma ‘(mujma’ ‘alaih), and is wisdom or metaphorist.

There is also a possibility The breath count is counted twicenamely one to enter and one to exit. This might explain why the numbers in the book can be far greater than the results of medical observations.

Devotional: Your breath will be asked!

Far more important than the amount is how every breath is used. Emphasized in the book:

His breath was given a number, so every soul came out without mentioning God, was dead

Meaning: “Breath is counted, and every breath that comes out without accompanied by dhikr to God is a dead breath.”

Imagine if it is true that every pull and breath will be asked two things: What are you doing when you breathe? What are you doing when you exhale?

Questions we have to contemplate

In this busy world, have we realized that our lives are calculated not from the number of years, but from the amount of value of value?

If in every breath can occur 100,000 deaths and births, is it possible that Allah ‘Azza Wa Jalla is showing that life Not just about usBut also about The natural universe and the influential chaos?

And … if our breath is only counted as a routine, not worship, then where will you take this age?

There is a piece of interesting poetry that is enough to describe the conditions of human life:

“This life … is like a river that flows from the past/keep going/we will go together to the estuary/place where people remember the sea // in this river/some are restrained due to love/some are planting hate/then some people … intensely scattered without the rest …”

Hope it is useful. Wallohu a’lam.