Is There Evidence for Lengthening the Lā?

A question was put about the gathering of dhikr: that it opens with faʿlam annahu lā ilāha illallāh, and then lā ilāha illallāh is said ten times in a rhythmic, beautiful manner, with the lā drawn out very long — and where is this in the Sunnah? Is there any evidence, any dalīl, for it? The questioner said he was not criticising, he only wanted to know. The answer lies in the books of hadith that are ordinarily used. One of them is a collection by one of the mashāyikh, Aḥmad Gümüşhanevi, who collected from the reliable, muʿtabar, hadith collections of the first four hundred years: over eight and a half thousand hadith, arranged as a muʿjam, in which he begins with each letter. Under the letter alif are all the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) that begin with alif; under the letter bāʾ, all the hadith that begin with bāʾ; under jīm, all that begin with jīm. Under the section for mīm — man, "he who" — there are quite a few hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) of the form: he who says the following, Allah will give him this. He gives the references, the symbols, rumūz, of the hadith — the collections he took each one from. And there is a five-volume commentary on this collection, which he wrote himself, Lawāmiʿ al-ʿUqūl, very well known, all in pure Arabic; because he was a muḥaddith and a faqīh, he goes through the critique of each hadith, whether it is weak, ḍaʿīf, whether it is sound, ṣaḥīḥ, whether it is ḥasan, and gives all the necessary grading.

The hadith is there. Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said — the grading of this particular hadith is not given here; it is in Ibn al-Najjār, one of the collectors of hadith, and also in Abū Nuʿaym — man qāla lā ilāha illallāh wa maddahā hudimat lahu arbaʿatu ālāfi dhanbin min al-kabāʾir. SubḥānAllāh. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: he who says lā ilāha illallāh while elongating it, stretching the sound of the lā — when he says it in that way, Allah (swt) will destroy — hudimat; there is no other word for it than destroy — four thousand of his major sins, kabāʾir. SubḥānAllāh. People do not understand the significance, the value, of lā ilāha illallāh in the sight of Allah. Allah has given it as a gift, and they do not understand. If lā ilāha illallāh were put on one side of the scale and the rest of the universe on the other, lā ilāha illallāh would be the heavier. Lā ilāha illallāh: thaman al-jannah, the price of Paradise; miftāḥ al-jannah, the key of Paradise. He who says lā ilāha illallāh while elongating, stretching the lā with its alif — Allah will destroy how many? Four thousand of his major sins. This is a virtue, a faḍīlah. Is Allah al-Ghanī? Āmannā wa ṣaddaqnā. Is He rich? Can He forgive four thousand of a person's sins? If Allah wants to, without any difficulty. And so it is hoped, if Allah wills.