Chapter on the Command to Send Prayers upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): Allah the Exalted said

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
He (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “Chapter on the Command to Send Prayers upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Allah the Exalted said:

Indeed, Allah confers blessing upon the Prophet, and His angels [ask Him to do so]. O you who have believed, ask [Allah to confer] blessing upon him and ask [Allah to grant him] peace.

إن الله وملائكته يصلون على النبي يا أيها الذين آمنوا صلوا عليه وسلموا تسليمًا

[Al-Ahzab 33:56]

Narrated by 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As (may Allah be pleased with them both)

‘Abdallah b. ‘Amr b. al-‘As reported God's Messenger as saying, “When you hear the mu’adhdhin repeat what he says, then invoke a blessing on me, for everyone who invokes one blessing on me will receive ten blessings from God.

أنه سمع رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يقول: من صلى علي صلاة صلى الله عليه بها عشرًا

Mishkat al-Masabih 657

Reported by Muslim”.

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his book *Riyad al-Salihin*: "Chapter on the Command to Send Prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family". The command is sometimes for obligation and sometimes for recommendation. The obligatory means that if a person leaves it, he is sinful, disobedient, and deserving of punishment. The meaning of recommendation is that if a person does it, he gets reward, and if he leaves it, he is not sinful. The obligatory and the recommended agree in that there is reward for doing both, but the reward for the obligatory is greater and more abundant, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the Holy Hadith that Allah the Exalted said: . The obligatory differs from the recommended in that the one who leaves the obligatory is sinful, disobedient to Allah, and deserving of punishment, while the one who leaves the recommended does not sin, but he misses out on good. The author (may Allah have mercy on him) stated the command to send prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family in a general way, so the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed: Is it obligatory to send prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family once in a lifetime, or due to specific causes, or is it not obligatory? The correct view is that it is obligatory due to specific causes, otherwise the original ruling is that it is recommended. What does sending prayers upon the Prophet mean? What does it mean when one says, "O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad"? Most people recite this or make this supplication without knowing its meaning, and this is a mistake. Know the meaning of everything you say and everything you supplicate with, so that you do not supplicate with sin. So, your saying: "O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad" means, "O Allah, praise Him in the highest assembly." The meaning of "praise Him" is to mention Him with the praiseworthy attributes. The highest assembly is the angels. So, when you say, "O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad," it is as if you are saying, "O Lord, describe Him with the praiseworthy attributes and mention Him among the angels so that their love for him increases and their reward increases thereby." This is the meaning of: "O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad". The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed: Is it permissible to send prayers upon someone other than the Prophet, or not? That is, is it permissible to say, "O Allah, send prayers upon so-and-so the scholar, or so-and-so the Shaykh, or O Allah, send prayers upon my father," or the like? The correct view is that there is a detail in this. If it is attached to the sending of prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family, there is no harm. For this reason, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said when they asked him how to send prayers upon him: . And if it is independent, if it is for a reason, there is no harm. Among such reasons is if a person brings you his charity to be distributed, you say, "O Allah, send prayers upon him." For example, if someone gives you a thousand riyals and says, "Take this zakah and distribute it," you say, "Here, O Allah, send prayers upon so-and-so," and he hears you say this, due to the saying of Allah Blessed and Exalted is He to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family: . This is also without harm. Likewise, if you send prayers upon a person without making it a slogan for him, such that every time you mention him you send prayers upon him, there is no harm. That is, even if you say, for example, "O Allah, send prayers upon Abu Bakr, or upon 'Umar, or upon 'Uthman, or upon 'Ali," there is no harm. But do not make it a slogan such that every time you mention him you send prayers upon him, because if you do that, you make him as if he were a Prophet. Then the author introduced this chapter with the noble verse: . So, reflect on what is in this verse of news, command, and emphasis. This is news that Allah informed us of to encourage us to send prayers and peace upon him. Allah and His angels, all the angels in all the heavens and the earth, send prayers upon the Prophet. The angels are a hidden realm of Allah's creation, and none can count them except Allah Mighty and Majestic. The Adorned House in the seventh heaven is entered by seventy thousand angels every day, every day, and then they do not return to it, meaning others come, other angels come. So, who can count them? None can count them except Allah. And in the hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . The creaking is the creaking of the saddle, meaning the creaking of the straps on the camel, and it does not creak unless there is a heavy load on it; you hear a creaking sound. He said: . The sky is not like the earth; the sky is much, much wider than the earth. Look now at the vast one, which is on the earth like a sphere, so its circumference is wide and great. The second sky is wider, the third is wider, the fourth is wider, the fifth is wider, and the seventh is wider. In every sky, there is an angel between the four fingers, an angel standing for Allah, bowing, and prostrating. So, who can count the angels? If we cannot count the angels, is it possible to count the sending of prayers upon the Messenger? No, because the angels send prayers upon the Prophet, so the sending of prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) cannot be counted. See, Allah's favor is vast. Allah gave this man, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), this great virtue that no one attains, as far as we know. This is news that Allah wanted us to be encouraged by. For this reason, He said after it: . By the measure of your faith. The address is directed to us specifically by the attribute of faith, because faith is what carries a person to obey the command. Prayers and peace. Call upon Allah to praise Him in the highest assembly. Call upon Allah the Exalted to grant him complete safety. From what does He grant him safety? In his life, He grants him safety from physical and spiritual afflictions, and after his death, from spiritual afflictions, meaning that his Shari'ah is safe from being abolished by a judge or abrogated by an abrogator. And also the body, because it may be violated after his death in his grave, as in the famous story that two men wanted to extract the body of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). They descended to Madinah, two strangers, and began to dig a hole from under the ground, digging from under the ground until they would reach the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and take his noble body. They remained in that state for a period. Then one of the kings was shown in a dream that two men were digging to reach the body of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family and take it. He was greatly concerned about it, then he traveled to Madinah. He traveled to Madinah and arrived. Who knows these two men? How does he get to know them? He said to the governor of Madinah, "Call for me all the people of Madinah," because in the dream, either they were described to him or he saw them in the dream and knew them. He said, "Call for me the people of Madinah." He called them, fed them, and they walked, but he did not see the two men. He said, "Call for me the people of Madinah." He called them, I think twice or three times, and did not see the two men. And the vision was a true vision, so it must be so. He said, "Where are the people of Madinah?" They said, "There is no one in it except two strange men in the mosque," meaning they have no status. He said, "Bring them." They were brought, and they were the two he saw in the dream, so he recognized them. Then he ordered that a hole be dug to the edges of the earth, a hole on the sides of the chamber containing the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), before it was a building, and then it was filled with copper and lead so that Allah would protect the body of this noble Prophet. So the lead was poured to the ground. For this reason, the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is preserved completely. So, the important thing is that the saying of the Muslim: "O Allah, send prayers and peace upon Muhammad" means: Grant him safety from physical afflictions alive and dead, and also grant safety to his Shari'ah from being erased by anyone or violated by anyone. Then know, O brothers, that the bodies of the Prophets cannot be eaten by the earth; it is impossible. Because Allah forbade the earth to eat the bodies of the Prophets. So, their bodies are safe from the earth. The earth that eats every body except whom Allah wills does not eat the bodies of the Prophets. And the result is that in these noble verses, Allah the Exalted commanded us to send prayers and peace upon him with complete safety. Sending prayers upon him is obligatory in places, including when his name is mentioned to you, then send prayers upon him. Because Jibril came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "May the nose of the man who is mentioned to and does not send prayers upon you be crushed". May his nose be crushed. What does "crushed" mean? It means fallen into the dust. The crushing is the earthy dust. Meaning: If you hear the mention of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family, say, "O Allah, send prayers and peace upon him," because he has a right over you, and it is obligatory to send prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family. Also, according to many scholars, in the prayer, in the last tashahhud. According to many scholars, it is a pillar, and the prayer is not valid without it. According to some, it is a recommended practice. According to some, it is obligatory. The precaution is that a person does not leave it in his prayer, the sending of prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family. If a person made every supplication he makes accompanied by the sending of prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family, it would be as came in the hadith: it would suffice his worries and forgive his sin. So, increase, O my brother, in sending prayers and peace upon the Messenger; your faith will increase and matters will be made easy for you. Then know that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is a human being; he does not possess for you any benefit or harm. So, do not ask him. Do not say, "O Messenger of Allah, do such and such," "O Messenger of Allah, seek forgiveness for me," "O Messenger of Allah, help me," "O Messenger of Allah, make my matter easy." This is forbidden, major shirk (associating partners with Allah), because it is not permissible to call upon anyone with Allah. Supplication is specific to whom? To Allah. Allah the Exalted said: . If someone says, "Which right is greater, the parents, meaning the mother and father, or the Messenger?" The Messenger is greater than your right over yourself. For this reason, it is obligatory for a person to ransom himself for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), meaning to ransom the Messenger with himself. It is obligatory for every person, and the Messenger should be more beloved to him than himself, his child, his parents, and all people. If someone says, "Does not Allah mention the right of the parents after His right?" We say: Yes. Allah the Exalted said: . But the right of the Messenger is mentioned in the right of Allah, because the worship of Allah is not completed except by sincerity to Allah and following the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And Allah grants success.