Abu Talha Ansari radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he says that,
one day the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
woke up, and the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
was clearly in high spirits. And you could see the
happiness and joy, gleaming from the face
of the Messenger SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam and so the
companion said to the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
"ya Rasulullah, you have awoken today in high spirits,
and the joy is gleaming from your face."
And the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Yes, because Jibril Alayhis Salam came to me and he said,
'whoever from your ummah sends salah upon you once,
Allah will record 10 hasanat for him' 10 good deeds for him.
'Allah will erase 10 sayyiat' 10 sins from him.
'Allah will raise him by 10 darajat,'
by 10 degrees in status,
'and Allah will respond to him in like manner,'"
meaning Allah will send salah upon that person
as a result of them sending salawat
on the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
"Inna Allah wa malaaa'i katahoo
yusallona 'alan Nabiyy
yaaa aiyuhal lazeena aamanoo salloo
'alaihi wa sallimoo tasleemaa"
Allah says in the Quran, "Indeed, Allah sends his prayers
and blessings upon the Prophet, SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
and the angels do so as well.
O You who believe!
Send your peace and blessing upon the Messenger,
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
Allahuma Salli 'Ala Muhammad
Who is going to mandate upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala
anything, except for him Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala?
Yet Allah 'Azawajal says, that "I send
salawat on the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
And who amongst us can claim to be better than the angels?"
Yet, Allah says that "the angels all send salawat
on the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam."
And they do that out of the honor and love that the
Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam is duly granted
because of who he is, because of what his station is.
But beyond that, for all of us, as the ummah
of Muhammad SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam,
how much do we owe the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
for being the vehicle of Islam,
the vehicle of faith and guidance,
that literally saves our lives and our after lives?
And so Ibn al-Qayyim Rahimahullah said
that "if the servant was to send salah
upon the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam, equivalent
to every single breath that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala
gives to them, he still will not have fulfilled the
right of the Messenger SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam upon us."
And so it is something that we owe to our Messenger
Alayhis Salatu WasSalaam, and we can never get sick of it,
nor will we ever do enough of it.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala has made it so
that the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said that
"angels travel around the earth."
There are angels that are going
over the earth at all times, and they are conveying to the
Messenger SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam the salam of his ummah
And the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said
that "Allah gives me the ability to respond
to each and every single one of those salams."
Wherever you are,
you send your peace and blessings upon him,
and think about the operation of the angels
going around the earth and gathering them, and
bringing that to the Messenger SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
And then Allah allowing, through his divine means,
the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam to respond.
Now that's the angels, and that's the Messenger,
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
But what does it mean for Allah himself
to send salawat upon you?
As Allah says, he sends salawat
on the Messenger SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
The 'ulama mention that what salawat upon you means is
"al-thikr wal thana fil mal'il 'ala,"
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala remembers you,
and he praises you in the highest heavens,
amongst the greatest of His creations.
And so you want your name to be mentioned
in the highest ranks.
Then remember the highest of Allah's creation,
and send salawat on him SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
On top of that, 10 sins are forgiven.
10 good deeds are entered into your book of deeds.
And Allah 'Azawajal raises you by 10 degrees.
And so the more Allah raises you,
the higher chance you have to be closer to the Prophet
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam on the last day.
And that's why if you really compare these two
ahadeeth, one of them,
the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam says,
"do you know who the bakheel is," the miser is?
And they said, "who is, O, Messenger of Allah?"
He said, "the one in whose presence I am mentioned.
But he doesn't send salah upon me.
You are bakheel, you're stingy with yourself.
Just like a person can be thalim l-nafseeh,
a person can be a wrongdoer,
an a oppressor to their own soul. When you hear
the name of the Messenger SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
and you're not moved, to at least, in the first time,
which is mandatory, the first time his name is mentioned
within a setting, to send salawat upon him
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
Why would you be stingy with yourself and deprive yourself
of the good deeds?
And why would you not feel grateful to the Messenger
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam for having brought you
the message of Islam?
And so you become stingy with yourself,
just like a person can become
an oppressor of their own soul.
Now you compare that to the other hadith,
where the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"awla alnas bi youm al-qiyamah, aktharahum 'alaya salahtan.
That "the person closest to me on the Day of Judgment
is the one who sends the most salawat upon me.
So think about a person who sends salawat on the Prophet
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam all the time,
10 degrees of heaven, 10 degrees of heaven,
10 degrees of heaven, until eventually they are close
to him SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
And we know that there are other narrations where
the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam mentions
a person who has the best character,
a person who cares for the orphan,
a person who follows him the most closely.
And all of that is part of the package
of loving the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
And we verbalize that in thikr, by saying
Allahumma salli wa sallim 'alaa nabiyyina Muhammad
And so we do it every morning.
We do it every evening. Countless times.
We do it on the night and day of Friday,
which is technically, Thursday night up until Friday maghrib
where the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said
that "it is the most blessed time
to send salawat upon him."
We do it in our salah
Of course your salah is incomplete without it.
We do it in our du'a. And in one narration,
the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"When one of you makes du'a, he should start off
by praising and glorifying his Lord,"
meaning with tasbeeh and tahmeed
"And then he should invoke salawat on the Prophet
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam, and then make du'a for whatever
it is that you want." And so you start off with,
"Alhamdulillah wasSalaatu wa Salaam 'alaa Rasulillah"
And then you go on to ask
for whatever it is that you want to ask.
Now think about what you would ask for
and why you would ask for it,
and what you hope from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala
even when you make du'a.
And so you have the very famous narration,
where Ubay radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu says, "Ya Rasulullah,
I frequently ask Allah to send salawat upon you."
So I frequently do salawat.
How much of my du'a should I devote to salawat?
And so the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"you can do as much as you want."
He said, "Ya Rasulullah, what if I make it a quarter,
one fourth of my du'a?"
The Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"do whatever you want, and it will be better for you if you
increase it." He said, "what if I do half?"
The Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"do whatever you want, and it will be better for you if
you increase it."
He said, "what if I do two thirds?"
He said, "do whatever you want,
and it will be better for you if you increase it."
He said, "Ya Rasulullah, what if I devote all of my du'a
to sending salawat upon you? What if my whole du'a is
'Allahumma salli wa salim 'ala nabiyna Muhammad?'"
And the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"ithan tukfa hamak wa yu-ghfaru laka thanbak"
He said, "If you you do that, you will be freed
from all of your worries,
and your sins will be entirely forgiven."
Now SubhanAllah I want you to pause with this for a moment.
Think about what it means to ask Allah to send peace and
blessings on the Messenger SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
for you. Think about how much comes through this,
how much blessing comes in your life?
And the scholars mentioned various reasons for this.
One of them is the very famous narration
that when a person makes du'a for their brother,
Allah 'Azawajal has an angel that says,
"ameen wa laka b-mithleehi" ameen and for you as well.
What better brother to make du'a for,
than the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam?
The other things the scholars mention is that, you know,
on one hand we learn from the
Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam himself that there are
other forms of thikr, other forms of du'a
But we also find that with Obay radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
as Ibn Taymiyyah Rahimahullah mentions, it may be that
perhaps he had a particular thing he was asking Allah for.
And when he replaced it with salawat,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'Aala granted it to him.
And so, if you're asking Allah for anything of this world,
what better than to replace that with salawat,
or a great portion of that du'a with salawat,
and gain the blessings of that?
That which you see and that which you don't.
And when it comes to the hereafter,
the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said,
"there is no Muslim who sends salah upon me,
except that the angel sends salah upon him,
until he reaches the end of his sending salawat upon me.
so let the servant decrease in this or increase,"
Meaning you choose how much of a station
you want to have with Allah, by sending salawat
on the Prophet SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
And if you want the most praiseworthy station,
then send your salawat constantly,
upon the one who has been guaranteed the most
praiseworthy station because he is the most praiseworthy
creation, of all time SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam.
(chanting in Arabic)
(chanting in Arabic continuing)
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