You may start with only a few in the beginning and increase it gradually. If you find it difficult to keep count, you may keep track of time instead. If this is difficult too, then begin with only repeating the names Mureed, Nur and Quddus without keeping count at all.
If you don’t have time to complete all of the names on the list, you may reduce their number of repetition, though it may take a little longer to see results. The important thing is that you begin these dhikrs in the morning and complete it before going to bed at night. You may do them everywhere and at all times, whether you have ablution or not, it does not matter.
If you make nine repetitions each time you draw a bead, and you have a set of beads that’s one hundred beads long, then one full rotation will lead to nine hundred repetitions. You may prefer to complete the nine repetitions by three sets of three; For example: Mureed-Mureed-Mureed, Mureed-Mureed-Mureed, Mureed-Mureed-Mureed…
If you have a slender physique, or if your fingers are long and thin and your fingertips are pointy and oval shaped, or if you have a wide forehead and a pointy chin then you should also add the following:
300 x ALLAHUMMA THABBIT QALBI ALA DEENIK
If you frequently feel distressed and find it hard to enjoy life, then you should also add the following:
100 x Chapter Ash-Sharh
300 x RABBISH RAHLI SADRI WA YASSIR LEE AMRI
300 x ALAM NASHRAH LAKA SADRAK + 1,800 x BASIT
If you start seeing the benefits after a few months and your time permits and you choose to take it further, then you may also add the following:
300 x ALLAHUMMA ALHIMNI RUSHDI WA-A’IDHNI MIN SHARRI NAFSI
300 xRABBI ZIDNI ILMAN WA FAHMAN WA IYMANA
3,600 x RAHIM
2,700 x SAMI
2,700 x BASIR
2,700 x ALEEM
2,700 x AZIZ
2,700 x WAKIL
2,700 x WAHHAB
2,700 x JAMI
In applying the first list I provided above, if the person has passed the age of 40, then after a few months of repeating the name MUREED 4,500 times and seeing its benefit, he may reduce it to 3,600.
Besides these, if one has time for more, I strongly recommend the salawat taught by Hadhrat Fatma (r) 100 times a day:
Rabbi innee ẓalamtu nafsee ẓalman katheeran lakal utba hatta tardha
If one is afflicted by any form of worldly affair, repeating the following prayer 500 times a day will have an enormous effect in a very short time:
Hasbiya Llaahu laa ilaaha illaa huwa `alayhi tawakkaltu wa huwa rabbu l-arshi l-`Adheemi. Sayaj`alu Allahu ba`da `usrin yusra.
Hasbiya Allahu wani’mal wakeel; wa kafaa billahi waliyyan wa kafaa billahi naseera
If you read up on and study Sufism and other sources informing of the reality of the system while engaging in these dhikrs you’ll find your ability to understand to be much enhanced. For, whether you like it or not, these practices will activate a new capacity in your brain, enabling you to understand and comprehend new information with ease.
Additionally, I’ve included a prayer below that can be done in the last prostration of a two rakat salat performed during the night. Of course, using these exact words isn’t necessary, so long as one makes a heartfelt prayer pointing to the same meaning.
“O Allah, the Rabb of the Throne and all of the angels... I plead to You with the comprehension that in Your sight I am helpless, powerless, needy and nonexistent... Please forgive me for all of my mistakes and all of the actions I did either inadvertently or by succumbing to my ego.
O Allah, the Rabb of our Master Muhammad (saw), ease for me the path of those whom You have blessed and protect me from becoming of those who have truly deviated. Make me of those whom You have honored by choosing for Yourself, make me close to Your most beloveds among those who are currently living on earth, and make their deeds easy and pleasant for me too!
O Allah, besides whom there is no other, O Allah who creates everything with perfection, O Allah who can never be fully comprehended, O HU, ya men HU! For the sake of Your Absolute Essence, save me from the blindness of my sight, make me comprehend the absolute truth, and make the truth easy for me to bear and understand. Enable me to reach such a state of certainty that all disbelief and duality is removed thereafter!
O Allah, I seek refuge in You from all things that prevent me from living in a state of absolute certainty... I seek refuge in You from You... I seek refuge in You from being in Your presence with my sense of ‘self’ (ego-identity)... You are the protector and Your power is sufficient over all things... You are the Azeem Rabb of the worlds, all dimensions of life...
Please grant as many blessings upon Your Rasul as there are in Your sight, who has informed us of these truths, as he deserves, we are incapable of duly discerning him.”