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Invoking Blessings upon God’s Messenger
The merit of invoking blessings upon God’s Messenger, God bless him and give him peace; his special virtue, God bless him and give him peace
God, Exalted is He, said:
‘God and His angels bless the Prophet. O you who believe, bless him also, and greet him with peace.’ [al- Aḥzāb, 33:56]
(Inna-llāha wa-malā’ikatahu yuṣallūna ‘alā-lnabīyi yā ayyuhā-lladhīna āmanū ṣallū ‘alayhi wa-sallimū taslīmā.)
According to Tradition: ‘The Prophet, on him be peace, came one day – his face aglow with good tidings – and said: “Gabriel, on him be peace, came to me and said: ‘It will surely please you to know, Muhammad, that no member of your Community ever invokes a single blessing on you without my invoking ten upon him, and that no member of your Community ever salutes you with peace without my saluting him ten times.’”’
1
The Prophet, on him be peace, also said: ‘When anyone blesses me, the angels invoke the same blessings on him; so let him give and receive accordingly, whether little or much.’
2 Said he, on him be peace: ‘The person most worthy of me is he who blesses me most often.’
3
The Messenger, on him be peace, said: ‘It is the height of meanness in a believer for him to hear me mentioned and not to bless me.’
4 He said, on him be peace: ‘Multiply benediction upon me on the day of Congregational Prayer (Friday).
5
The Prophet, on him be peace, said: ‘Ten good deeds are recorded in favour of any member of my Community who blesses me, and ten bad deeds are erased from his record.’
6 And he said, on
him be peace: ‘If anyone says, when he hears the Call to Prayer and the Signal to begin Prayer: “O God, Lord of this Perfect Call and steadfast Prayer, bless Muhammad, Your servant and Your messenger; grant him mediation, merit, exalted rank and intercession on the Day of Resurrection” – he is entitled to my intercession.’
7
God’s Messenger, on him be peace, said: ‘If anyone blesses me in writing, the angels will not cease asking forgiveness for him as long as my name is in that book.’
8 He said, on him be peace: ‘There are angels on earth who travel around to bring me salutation from my Community.’
9 And he said, on him be peace: ‘No-one salutes me without God’s restoring my spirit to me so that I may return his salutation.’
10
When they asked him: ‘O Messenger of God, how should we invoke blessings upon you?’ he replied: ‘Say: “O God, bless Muhammad, Your servant, and his family and his wives and his offspring, as You have blessed Abraham and the family of Abraham. Bestow Your grace upon Muhammad, his wives and his offspring, as you have bestowed Your grace upon Abraham and the family of Abraham. You are indeed Praiseworthy and Glorious.”’
11
It is related that, after the death of God’s Messenger, on him be peace, ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may God be pleased with him, was heard weeping and saying:
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! There was once a palm tree stump on which you used to stand when you addressed the people. But when the people grew in number, you adopted a pulpit to let them all hear you. The tree stump then mourned your separation, until you laid your hand upon it and it was reassured. Still greater right has your Community to pine for you now you have parted from them.
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! So great is your merit in His sight that He has equated obedience to you with obedience to Himself, for He said, Great and Glorious is He: “Whoever obeys the Messenger obeys God.” [al-Nisā’, 4:80]
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! So great is your merit in His sight that He told you you were
pardoned before He told you the offence, for He said, Great and Glorious is He: “God has pardoned you – why did you grant them leave (of absence from military duty)?”
* [al-Tawbah, 9:43]
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! So great is your merit in His sight that He sent you as the last of the Prophets, yet mentioned you among the first of them, for He said, Great and Glorious is He: “Then We exacted a covenant from the Prophets – from you, from Noah, from Abraham …” [al-Aḥzāb, 33:7]
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! So great is your merit in His sight that the people of Hell dearly wish they had obeyed you; as they suffer torment among its layers they say: “If only we had obeyed God, and had obeyed the Messenger!” [al-Aḥzāb, 33:66]
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! While God gave Moses, son of ‘Imrān, a rock from which streams gushed forth, this is not more miraculous than when water welled from your fingers, God bless you.
12
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! It is true that God gave Solomon, son of David, “the wind whose morning course was a month’s journey and its evening course a month’s journey.” [Sabā’, 34:12] Yet this was not so miraculous as Burāq, on which you ascended to the seventh heaven, then ended your night by performing the morning Prayer in the valley bed – God bless you.
13
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! God did indeed grant Jesus, Mary’s son, the power to bring the dead to life. Yet this is no greater miracle than when the poisoned sheep spoke to you, roasted as it was; for its leg said to you: “Do not eat me! I am poisoned.”
14
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! Noah once cursed his people, saying: “Lord, leave none of the unbelievers on the earth!” [Nūh, 71:26] Had you cursed us like that, we should have perished. Yet, though your back was trampled, your face bloodied and your teeth broken,
15 you refused to say anything but good; your words were: “O God, forgive my people, for they do not know.”
16
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! Though your years were few and your life-span short, you were followed by many more than followed Noah, for all his great age and longevity. Many believed in you, but only a few believed along with him.
‘You are more to me than my father and mother, O Messenger of God! If you had sat with none but your peer, you would not have sat with us; if you had married only your equal, you would not have trusted us. And yet, by God, you did sit with us, marry among us and trust us. You dressed in wool;
17 you rode the donkey and I rode behind you;
18 you set your food on the ground;
19 you licked your fingers in all humility
20 – God bless you and give you peace.’
Someone said: ‘I used to write down Tradition, invoking blessings upon the Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, but not saluting him with peace. Then I saw the Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, in a dream, in which he said to me: “Do you not complete the benediction for me in your writing?” Since then I have never written without invoking upon him both blessings and peace.’
Abūl Ḥasan is reported as saying: ‘I saw the Prophet, on him be peace, in a dream, and I said: “O Messenger of God, with what was al-Shāfi’ī rewarded on your behalf, for saying in his book, al-Risāla: ‘And God bless Muhammad – as the mindful remember and the heedless forget to mention’?” Said he, God bless him and give him peace: “He was rewarded on my behalf with not having to face the Reckoning.”’
* Before an important expedition in defence of Islām, the Prophet, on him be peace, had readily accepted excuses from those who did not wish to participate, without establishing whether the excuses were genuine. (Tr.)