Dhikr While Commuting and Working: A Practical Guide

The Hours We Don’t Count

Every day, you spend time doing things that don’t require your full mental presence: driving, walking, riding transit, waiting in queues, doing dishes, folding laundry, repeating routine tasks at work.

These hours add up. The average commute in major cities is 30-60 minutes each way. Add waiting time, walking between places, and routine physical tasks, and you have 2-4 hours daily where your mind is essentially free — even if your body is occupied.

Most people fill this time with podcasts, music, or social media. These aren’t necessarily haram, but they represent a significant opportunity cost.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before your busyness, and your life before your death.” (Recorded by al-Hakim)

Your commute is free time in exactly this sense. Your body is occupied, but your mind and tongue are available. This guide shows you how to use them.

The Key Principle: Compatibility

Not every activity is compatible with every type of dhikr. The first step is matching the right dhikr to the right activity.

Mental demand of the task:

• Low (driving a familiar route, walking, doing dishes, exercising): compatible with verbal dhikr, listening to Quran or Islamic audio, or reflective thought
• Medium (routine work tasks, light data entry, folding laundry): compatible with silent tasbeeh, simple repetitive dhikr
• High (writing, complex problem-solving, active conversation): this time is less suitable for layered dhikr, but even a single phrase between tasks is possible

The goal is not to distract yourself from important tasks. It’s to fill the genuinely idle mental space with something of value.

During Your Commute: The Best Opportunity

The commute is arguably the single best opportunity for building a dhikr habit, for one simple reason: it’s consistent. You make this journey at roughly the same time, along the same route, most days. That consistency is exactly what habit formation requires.

If You Drive

Driving requires physical attention but leaves the tongue and much of the mind free. Options:

Recite your morning or evening adhkar. If you’re commuting in the morning, your Fajr prayer time has passed and you may not have had time for morning adhkar — the drive is perfect. Memorize the core set: SubhanAllah 33x, Alhamdulillah 33x, Allahu Akbar 33x, Ayat al-Kursi, the three Quls. Doing this verbally while driving takes under 10 minutes and requires no screen.

Verbal tasbeeh. Simply keep saying La ilaha illAllah or SubhanAllah with each exhale. You can count on your fingers or simply let it flow without counting. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Whoever says SubhanAllah 100 times before sunrise and 100 times before sunset, no one will come on the Day of Judgment with more good deeds than him — except someone who said the same or more.” (Muslim)

Listen to Quran. Having a regular surah or reciter playing during your commute fills the car with barakah. Even if you’re not actively following along with focused concentration, the words are present. Choose a recitation you find beautiful. Make it your commute’s soundtrack.

Salawat on the Prophet (peace be upon him). This is especially easy in the car. Simply keep sending salawat verbally: “Allahumma salli ala Muhammad, Allahumma barik ala Muhammad.” The drive becomes a sustained act of love for the Prophet (peace be upon him).

If You Use Public Transit

Transit commutes are often more flexible than driving, since your hands are free and your eyes aren’t required for safety.

Read Quran on your phone using a clean, ad-free app. Even a few verses per commute adds up to significant reading over a year.

Listen to Islamic lectures or podcasts. The richness of Islamic knowledge available in audio form is extraordinary. A 30-minute commute over 5 days is 2.5 hours of learning per week, or roughly 130 hours per year. That’s a serious Islamic education if used wisely.

Silent dhikr with a counter. Keep a dhikr counter app on your phone (or carry a physical tasbih). Aim for 100 repetitions of La ilaha illAllah per commute. This is achievable in under 10 minutes and leaves you off the transit having earned immense reward.

Dua. Transit is a rare time when you’re relatively still, not actively engaged in conversation, and have some mental space. Use it to make personal dua — for your family, for the ummah, for your needs, for the day ahead.

If You Walk

Walking is perhaps the best dhikr environment of all. The rhythm of footsteps naturally supports repetitive phrases. The physical movement and fresh air keep you alert. And unlike driving or transit, you are fully in control of your attention.

“La ilaha illAllah” with each two steps — one syllable per step — has been practiced for centuries. “SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar” rotated with each step. This is the walking dhikr tradition of the Sufi orders, but it has its roots in the broad Sunnah of constant remembrance.

Walking also gives you the capacity for a different kind of dhikr: tafakkur, or reflection. Look at what’s around you. The sky, the trees, the human beings going about their lives. The Quran repeatedly invites this kind of observational worship: “Do they not look at the sky above them?” (Quran 50:6) Walking while genuinely looking and reflecting is worship.

During Work: Filling the Gaps

The workday has natural gaps. Waiting for a meeting to start. Processing time between tasks. The few minutes while a document loads. A break between clients. These brief moments, multiplied across a workday, represent significant time.

Between tasks: Before switching from one task to another, pause for one Astaghfirullah and one Bismillah. One second of closing, one second of opening. This creates a rhythm of remembrance throughout the day without interrupting flow.

During repetitive tasks: Data entry, filing, routine processing, assembly work, packaging — any repetitive physical or cognitive task that doesn’t require active thought can be accompanied by silent dhikr. Your hands work while your heart remembers.

Before and after meetings: The moment of waiting before a meeting begins is an ideal 2-minute dhikr session. Close your eyes briefly, say SubhanAllah ten times slowly, and then enter the meeting. This transition also tends to reduce anxiety before difficult conversations.

The lunch break: Even five minutes of intentional dhikr during lunch — before or after eating — breaks the day in a spiritually meaningful way. The dua before eating (Bismillah) and after eating (Alhamdulillah alladhee at’amana…) are small but consistent reminders that everything comes from Allah.

Practical Tools

A physical tasbih (prayer beads). Keep one in your pocket, your car, or on your desk. The tactile sensation of moving beads is a physical anchor that supports the habit, and it doesn’t require a screen.

A dhikr counter app. Several free apps allow you to count repetitions easily. The simpler the better — just a counter and a number.

A single sticky note. At your desk, a sticky note with one dhikr phrase (“Astaghfirullah — seek forgiveness between tasks”) serves as a consistent visual reminder.

Morning intention. Each morning, make a specific niyyah: “Today I intend to say SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi at least 100 times throughout the day.” The intention primes the mind to notice opportunities.

The Bigger Picture

The Prophet (peace be upon him) was described by his wife Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) as remembering Allah in every moment of his day — not in scheduled sessions only, but constantly, lightly, in the background of whatever else he was doing.

This is the model. Not the person who has a perfect 30-minute morning session but is spiritually absent the rest of the day, but the person whose day is woven through with remembrance — light, consistent, natural.

A commute is not wasted time. It is an opportunity that comes to you twice a day, 250 days a year, 500 times annually. Used well over a lifetime, it becomes one of the most significant spiritual practices in your life.

May Allah make our tongues moist with His remembrance, and our hearts present in it.

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Nafs helps you track your daily dhikr goals and builds reminders around your schedule — so you never lose a commute to mindless scrolling again.

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Keep Reading

Start with the complete guide: Building a Dhikr Habit: The Complete Guide to Consistency

• The 99 Names of Allah: A Dhikr and Reflection Guide
• Finding Barakah in Your Time: Islamic Productivity Secrets
• 7 Proven Benefits of Consistent Dhikr from the Quran and Sunnah

Ready to trade screen time for ibadah? Download Nafs free — 1 minute of worship = 1 minute of screen time.