Meaning: Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings

The Shaykh : Peace is one of the names of Allah, as Allah the Exalted said: . And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . However, in this context, it is not one of the names of Allah; rather, the intended meaning of "peace" is "safety" or "protection," meaning: Allah’s protection for you. That is, Allah protects you, O Prophet, from all evil. He protects you from all evil. He also protects your Shari'ah from all evil, because the safety of the Messenger’s (peace and blessings be upon him) Shari'ah entails his own safety. The evidence that the safety of the Shari'ah entails his safety is that if a person says something and people begin to insult that statement, the insult to the statement is an insult to whom? To the one who said it. So, O Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when you say "Peace be upon you, O Prophet," you are calling upon Allah to protect him and to protect his Shari'ah. Now, I told you that "peace" here means "protection." Does the form "fa'il" (active participle) ever carry the meaning of "taf'il" (causative form)?
The answer is: Yes. For example, "al-kalam" (speech) means "talking" or "addressing." So, "peace" here means "protection," specifically protection from Allah for you, O Prophet. That is, you are asking Allah to protect His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and to protect his Shari'ah from all deficiency and flaw.
There is a difficulty in the prayer of the one who says: "Upon you." There is a difficulty from two aspects:
The first aspect: How is it valid to address someone in prayer who is a human being, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ?
The second difficulty: How is it valid to address someone who does not hear and who is far from you?
As for the first difficulty, we say: Addressing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in this way is an exception to the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): . For this reason, the scholars said that if the one praying uses the "kaaf" of address (the "you" pronoun) for anyone other than Allah and His Messenger, his prayer is invalid.
If a man enters upon you while you are praying and says "Peace be upon you," and you reply "Peace be upon you all," your prayer is invalid, unless you are ignorant of the ruling.
The answer to the second difficulty: What is the second difficulty? How do we address him when he is absent and does not hear, and indeed, after his death, he is dead (peace and blessings be upon him)? The answer is: Our addressing of him will be conveyed to him, for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So, if you greet him, your greeting will reach him wherever you are. And due to the strength of your presence of mind, you address him as if he is present before you, even if he is far away. Now, Mercy, along with protection, contains completeness, because through mercy, the desired is attained, and through protection, the feared is removed. When peace and mercy are combined, the person achieves what he wants. So, you are now asking Allah to have mercy on him along with peace upon him. As for the blessings, "blessings" is the plural of "barakah," and "barakah" is the abundance and permanence of good. The linguists say: "It is derived from 'barakah'", and "barakah" is a gathering of water, which is usually large, and the water in it is stable.
In summary, the meaning is that you are asking Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) to protect His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and to encompass him with mercy and blessings.