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How to Send Greetings to Prophet Muhammad?
When sending greetings to Prophet Muhammad,
some say: Peace be upon him (PBUH)
others say: Peace be upon him and his family (PBUH&HF)
some others say are more generous and say: Peace be upon him
and his family (Aalihi) and his wives (wa Azwajihi) and all his
companions (wa Sahbihi Ajma'een).
Now let us see how the Prophet himself thought us to send blessing
for him:
The Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HF) said, "Do not salute
for me in short!" The companions asked, "What is saluting
in short?" The Prophet replied, "Saying that Blessing
of Allah be upon Muhammad.
" They asked, "what should
we say?" the Prophet (PBUH&HF) answered, "Say: Blessing
of Allah be upon Muhammad and his Ahlul-Bayt.
" In another
wordings the Prophet replied: "Say: O Allah bless Muhammad
and his household the same way as you blessed Abraham and his
household.
Verily you are worthy of all praise full of all glory!".
Sunni reference:
al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqah, by Ibn Hajar, Ch.
11, section 1, p225
This saying of the Prophet was in connection with the following
verse of Quran which was related about the House of Abraham (AS):
They said: "Do you wonder at Allah's decree? The Mercy of
Allah and His Blessings be upon you O people of the house! for
He is indeed worthy of all praise full of all glory!" (Quran
11:73)
Moreover, Ibn Hajar also mentioned that some of the Sunni commentators
of Quran have narrated from Ibn Abbas (RA) that the Quranic verse
"Peace be upon the family of Yaaseen (Quran 37:130)"
refers to the family of Muhammad.
(See al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqah,
by Ibn Hajar, Ch.
11, section 1, p228).
From the tradition given earlier, one can see that the Messenger
of Allah (PBUH&HF) mentioned his name and his Ahlul-Bayt together,
and disliked mentioning his name alone.
He specifically ordered
that his followers SHOULD include his family in all their greetings
to the Prophet Muhammad.
This because ONLY those individuals whom
Quran testifies to their perfect purity (the last sentence of
Verse 33:33) are worthy of being saluted.
Let us look at more
traditions, this time from Sahih al-Bukhari:
Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith: 6.
320
Narrated Ka'b bin Ujra:
It was said, "O Allah's Apostle! We know how to greet you,
but how to invoke Allah for you?" The Prophet said, "Say:
O Allah! Send your blessings/greetings (Salawat) on Muhammad and
his family, the same way as You sent Your blessings/greetings
on Abraham's family.
You are indeed worthy of all praise, full
of glory.
"
Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith: 6.
321
Narrated Abu Said al-Khudri:
We said, "O Allah's Apostle! (We know) this greeting (to
you) but how shall we invoke Allah for you?" He said, "Say:
O Allah! Send your greetings on Muhammad who is Your servant and
Your Messenger, the same way as You sent Your greetings on Abraham's
family.
And send Your blessings on Muhammad and on Muhammad's
family, the same way as You sent Your blessings on Abraham's family.
"
Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith: 6.
322
Narrated Ibn Abi Hazim and Ad-Darawardi:
Yazid reported (similarly with the following wordings) ".
And
send Your blessings on Muhammad and on Muhammad's family, the
same way as You sent Your blessings on Abraham and on Abraham's
family.
"
Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith: 8.
368
Narrated 'Abdur-Rahman bin Abi Laila:
Ka'b bin 'Ujra met me and said, "Shall I give you a present?
Once the Prophet (saw) came to us and we said, 'O Allah's Apostle!
We know how to greet You; but how to send Salat upon you?' He
said 'Say: O Allah! Send your greetings (Salawat) on Muhammad
and his family, the same way as You sent Your Salawat on Abraham's
family.
O Allah! Send Your blessings on Muhammad and on Muhammad's
family, the same way as You sent Your blessings on Abraham's family.
You are indeed worthy of all praise, full of glory.
"
Two more traditions are as follows:
Abu Masud Badri relates: (Once) we, were sitting with Sad bin
Ubadah when the Holy Prophet came to us.
Bashir Ibn Sad asked
the Holy Prophet: O Messenger of Allah, we have been commanded
by Allah to invoke blessings on you by reciting Salat, then how
shall we do this ? The Holy Prophet kept quite for sometime,
so much so that we wished that Bashar bin Sad had not asked the
question from the Holy Prophet.
After some time the Holy Prophet
said these words :
O Allah, send Thy blessings on Muhammad and on the children of
Muhammad as Thou didst send Thy blessings on Abraham, and bless
Muhammad and the children of Muhammad as Thou didst bless Abraham.
Indeed Thou art the praiseworthy, the Glorious.
Continuing, the
Holy Prophet said : and the salutation is already known to you.
Sunni reference: Riyadh al-Saliheen, by al-Nawawi, English version,
Tradition #1406
Although the above traditions confirm that the Prophet (PBUH&HF)
ordered people to send Salawat on him and his family.
This can
not be regarded as self-esteem, rather it was the order by Allah
to do that.
It served as teaching the Sunnah to people.
Specially
the highlighted part in the last tradition shows that the Prophet
was hesitating to salute himself at first, but since it was the
order of Allah, he conveyed the message.
In another tradition:
When the Messenger of Allah noticed that a blessing from Allah
was to descent, he told Safiyya (one of his wives): "Call
for me! Call for me!" Safiyya said: "Call who, O the
Messenger of Allah?" He said: "Call for me my Ahlul-Bayt
who are Ali, Fatimah, al-Hasan, and al-Husain.
" Thus we sent
for them and they came to him.
Then the Prophet (PBUH&HF)
spread his cloak (upper garment) over them, and raised his hand
(toward sky) saying: "O Allah! These are my family (Aalee),
so bless Muhammad and the family (Aal) of Muhammad.
" And
Allah, to whom belong Might and Majesty, revealed: "Verily
Allah intends to keep off from you every kind of uncleanness O'
People of the House (Ahlul-Bayt), and purify you a thorough purification
(Quran, the last sentence of Verse 33:33)".
Sunni references:
al-Mustadrak by al-Hakim, Chapter of "Understanding (the
virtues) of Companions, v3, p148.
The author then wrote: "This
tradition is authentic (Sahih) based on the criteria of the two
Shaikhs (al-Bukhari and Muslim).
"
Talkhis of al-Mustadrak, by al-Dhahabi, v3, p148
Usdul Ghabah, v3, p33
Similarly, it is narrated that in another occasion, when the Messenger
of Allah gathered Ali, Fatimah, al-Hasan, al-Husain (peace be
upon them all) under his cloak, he said:
"O Allah! Verily they are from me and I am from them.
Thus
place Your blessings and Your mercy and Your satisfaction on me
and them.
"
and:
"O Allah! These are Aale-Muhammad (family of Muhammad).
Thus
place Your blessings and Your bounty upon the family of Muhammad,
for, indeed You are the praiseworthy, the Glorious.
"
Sunni reference:
al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqah, by Ibn Hajar, Ch.
11, section 1, p225,
quoted from Ahmad Ibn Hanbal
Also it is narrated that:
The Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HF) said: "If one prays,
and in it he does not send blessings to me and my family, his
prayer will not be accepted.
"
Sunni references:
al-Darqunti, and al-Bayhaqi, as quoted in:
al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqah, by Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Ch.
11,
p349
In fact, invoking Salawat on the Prophet's family was so important
that it has been included in ANY Salawat on the Prophet (PBUH&HF).
Invoking Salawat on the family of the Prophet is a sign of pledging
allegiance to them, and affirming what Allah Himself has affirmed
for them: They are perfectly cleansed and worthy of being saluted.
Side Comment
Earlier, a Sunni brother mentioned that
I thought that "SWS" and "AS" were used for
the prophets whereas "RA" was used for others including
Ali (RA)
The abbreviation "AS" stands for "Alayhi-s-Salam"
meaning "peace be upon him".
I am interested to know
from where you concluded that we can not use this term for a non-prophet?
Could you quote a verse from Quran or an authentic tradition that
we can not use the phrase "Peace be upon him" after
his (AS) name?
Dear brother, if we want to follow the Sunnah of Prophet (PBUH&HF),
we are ORDERED by the above authentic traditions to send peace
not only to Imam Ali (AS) but also to all the members of the House
of Prophet.
If the Prophet (PBUH&HF) ordered us to send Peace
and blessing to his family, then who are we to set regulations
in contrary to that and yet claim to follow the Sunnah of Prophet?
The phrase "May Allah be please with him" (RA) can be
used for the companions, not for Prophet and his Ahlul-Bayt who
are perfectly pure, flawless, and sinless.
