The Meaning of Salawat Submitted by Sara A.

Source: www.duas.org Allah and His Angels send blessings on the Prophet, O you who believe! send your blessings on him, and solute him a thorough salutation . !"":#$% One o& the best ways to 'now the personality o& great men is to study their literature and listen to their words. As (mam Ali states in )ah*ul+,alagha : -.an is hidden behind his tongue meaning by our words we introduce ourselves not with our certi&icates. /i&&erent people according to their *ob use di&&erent *argons. Politicians have their own *argons, as physicians do, as drivers do etc. 0he *argons o& truc' drivers are di&&erent &rom pro&essors. 0here&ore, when people tal' you can more or less depending on your s'ills in this &ield can tell which class o& society do they belong to. 0oday, being the birthday anniversary o& (mam 1eda !a.s.% ( would li'e to present to you a very &ragrant &lower &rom the garden o& (mam 1eda , i.e. a wisdom word o& him. 0he Hadith is regarding the meaning o& Salawat, something that we every day o&&er many times. However, many o& us may not 'now enough i& any about the signi&icance o& it. 2irst o& all lets read the Hadith: Shei'h Sadou3 one o& our distinguishing Olama4 who was living in the 5th century AH has written a boo' named 6Oyoun+A'hbarul+1eda4 meaning 6the &ountains o& the wisdom words o& (mam 1eda4 . ( 3uote the Hadith under the consideration &rom this boo'. (mam 1eda !a.s.%: O Allah ! send your blessings onto the one that /aily Prayers is honored with having the Salawat on him4. Salam and Salawat on the Prophet is an established &act in the 7uran. (n Sura "" Aya #$ we recite: Allah and His Angels send Salat on the Prophet, O you who believe! send Salat on him, and solute him a thorough salutation . !"":#$% As &ar as ( 'now sending Salam and Salawat to the prophet o& (slam, is one o& the distinguishing characteristics o& our Prophet, o& which the previous prophets were deprived. .uslims across the world &rom the time the above Aya has been revealed up to the /ay o& 8reat 9udgment are bound to send their Salawat onto the Prophet o& (slam. .uslims &ive times a day when they call &or Adhan and :3ama and even in their daily Prayers send their Salawat onto the Prophet o& (slam. 0his is due to the /ivine Promise that And ;e raised high &or you your esteem <5:5% 0he :ti3uette o& Presence ;hen you are at the presence o& a highly respected person you use high titles, li'e : His :minence, /r. Sh. etc. However, when he is absent and we are tal'ing about him we may not bother about

those titles. (n (slamic :r&an the abpve e=pression is used &irstly &or Allah !s.w.t% and then &or >5 (n&allible. .uslim 8nostics believe they are and they should be always at the presence o& Allah and the >5 in&allible, and hence, they always mention those name with high respect. ( don4t ever remember that (mam ?homeini !r.a.% ever mentioned the name o& Allah !swt% without any o& His /ivine Attributes. Salawat on the Prophet and his pure progeny comes in this regards. 0he @irtues o& Salawat: >. the most valuable deeds in your Scale: A. An atonement &or the sins: ;hoever, can not ma'e an atonement &or his sins, then he should repeatedly send Salawat on the Prophet and his Ahlul+,ait, &or it destroys the sins thoroughly. ". A 'ey to the grant o& supplication: 0here are many Hadiths stating that in order to have your supplication granted start your supplication with Salawat and end it with Salawat. ,ecause, Salawat is an absolutely granted supplication and Allah !swt% is more merci&ul than to accept the beginning o& your supplication and the end o& it , but does not grant the one in the middle. 5. 1emembering the Prophet is e3ual to remembering Allah: ;hoever remembers 8od will receive >B rewards, and whoever remembers the Prophet will receive >B rewards, &or Allah has *oined His .essenger to Himsel&. According to a Hadith &ro (mam 1eda !a.s.% Salawat is e3ual to 0asbih, 0ahlil and 0a'bir. #. 0he best ;ord !/hi'r% in the Holy .os3ue: Someone came to (mam Sadi3 !a.s.% and said to him that he visited the Holy .os3ue in .ecca . /uring his rituals he could not remember any other supplication e=cept Salawat. 0he (mam replied you had remembered the best supplication. $. Salawat ,a treatment to amnesia. (t is practically proven that Salawat will treat the &orget&ulness. C. /aily Prayers is invalid without Salawat. All o& the .ara*e4 agree that Salawat in 0ashahod is compulsory and on the condition it is not mentioned intentionally then the Prayers is invalid. Also, Sha&e4 and Hanbali hold the same opinion &or the second 0ashahod. Salawat in the universe: 0he entire universe is as'ing the blessings &or the Prophet. 6Allah and His Angels are sending the blessings to the Prophet4. 0his is why the Prophet is 6the blessings &or the universe4. 2ollowing this natural process the believers are recommended to send the blessings onto the Prophet. As a matter o& &act, all o& the (slamic rules are harmonious with the natural laws. 0hat4s why (slam is called the religion o& nature !2etrat%. 0he universe is constantly as'ing the blessings &or the 6blessing o& the world4 and there&ore the believers are also recommended to &ollow this natural law. 0he .eaning o& Salawat: P>: Salawat is the plural &orm o& Salat which simply means 6to call4 !/o4a%. 0he reality o& calling is that the person who calls tries to attract the attention o& the one who is called to. 0his type o& attracting the attention i& it comes &rom a higher is called 1ahmat !blessing% and i& it comes &rom a lower is called /o4a !pray%. PA: (t is an established &act in (slamic :r&an that the e=istence o& the Prophet .ohammad !saww% is

the &irst e=istent came &rom Allah. (n other words, his e=istence is on the pea' o& the cone o& the creation. 0hat means the blessing o& e=istence which contains all other blessings comes to the prophet &irst and then goes to others. 0he prayer o& people to Allah does not reach Him unless through His .essenger, as the blessings o& Allah does not reach His creatures unless through His .essenger. 0here&ore, the Salawat o& Allah to the Prophet since it comes &rom Allah the Omnipotent, He is sending the constant blessings to His .essenger and hence, the Prophet becomes 6 1ahmatun+ lelalamin4 !blessing &or the universe%. As, the Salawat o& people to the Prophet is to pray to 8od to send His blessings to them through the Prophet who is 1ahmatun+Delalamin. Salawat o& the Angels: As the (mam !a.s.% stated in the above Hadith , the Salawat o& the angels is 60aE'eiah4 . 0aE'eiah means to e=onerate and immaculate. ;hat does it meanF :ach one o& the angels is the resemblance o& one o& the beauti&ul attributes o& 8od. )o angel can ever resemble all /ivine beauti&ul attributes. ;hereas, the Prophet, being the most per&ect man, held all o& the /ivine beauti&ul attributes. 0his is why his statue is higher than the angels. 0o this end, the angels are constantly e=onerating and immaculating the Prophet in the sense that he is &ree &rom their e&&iciency. 0his is the meaning o& prostration o& the angels be&ore Adam. 0hat means the angels are the servants o& the Prophet and his Ahlul+,ait. How to per&orm the Salawat: ;hat appears in the 7uran about the way Salawat must be conducted is to send it on to the Prophet. 0here is nothing regarding 6Aal4 !his pure &amily%. 0o this end, the Shiite will be 3uestioned as why and on which basis do they add 6Aal4 to the Salawat F 0he answer o& this 3uestion lies down under the circumstances in which the Aya was revealed. .ost o& the interpreters o& the 7uran have 3uoted that once the Aya under the consideration was revealed , the companions as'ed the Prophet o& (slamG O .essenger o& 8od ! we 'now how to say Salam to you but how should we send Salawat onto you !which was something new &or them%. 0he Prophet !saww% replied: Say: 6Allahuma salle alaa .ohammad wa Aale .ohammad ?ama Salayta Alaa (brahim :nna'a Hamidun .a*id.4 Apart &rom numerous Sunni resources who have 3uoted the above Hadith, (mam 1eda !a.s.% in a debating meeting with the distinguishing Sunni scholars has mentioned the Hadith and all agreed upon its accuracy. .ore over, there are some other Hadiths in which the Prophet has warned people to send an incomplete Salwat onto him. ;hen he was as'ed what did he mean by incomplete Salawat , he replied: that is to send a Salawat to me and not to *oin my Aal with me. (t is interesting to 3uote that .uslim in his Sahih has opened a chapter under the heading: 6 Hhapter o& Salat on the Prophet4 He has mentioned only two Hadiths in that chapter about the way the Salawat ought to be conducted. (n the both Hadiths it is mentioned to say: .ohammad and Aal .ohammad. However, it seems .uslim himsel& or perhaps the publisher has ignored the contents o& the chapter and when on the top o& the chapter the name o& the Prophet has been mentioned it is typed in &ront o& it : Sallalahu alayhe ;a Sallam, the 6Aal4 is omitted. (n short, one o& the reasons that the Prophet !saww% added his 6Aal4 to his name could be the Aya o& .obahila.