Saying Salat(Durud) to the prophet(SAW) Shawwal 1433.

Assalamu alaikum brothers & sisters, I pray may Allah accept all our devotions in this our Earthly existence. I wish out of His divine grace that He will grant us more effort to worship Him sincerely and eargerly in out mundane life and beyond. May he clear away all things that bordered us, our lives, religion, honour, families and beloved ones forever from us by the graces of this His beloved Apostle, Muhammad the son of AbdAllah(RA). May He open the doors of all things good for our lives and religion with ease out of the graces of this apostle(SAW). I will like to sincerely encourage myself and you to put additional effort in saying salat to the prophet(SAW) in this grace period, when we are still alife, before the angels come for our souls, salat which this act is best needed. Let us adjust our schedules for salat to the prophet(SAW), clear away any action that can be done tomorrow leave it for tomorrow and concentrate on Salat to the prophet(SAW). Likewise, reduce some hours of night and remain awake saying salat to the prophet(SAW), you can recover the lost sleep once in three consecutive days, or once in two days. Please, Im begging myself and you to resist all temptations that will try to steal valuable hours without filling it with salat to the prophet(SAW) in these short lives of ours that hardly will it go beyond 60 and 70. Remember, faithful like us say salat to him for thousands of years!
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To this, I will like to share some points with myself and you on saying salat to the prophet(SAW), just to remind you and add more efforts to an existing one.

This verse of Suratul Ahzab places salat to the prophet(SAW) obligatory once in any muslim lifetime and encourages repetitions. From the verse we can infer the followings: 1. The English meaning of the verse Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings(salat) on the prophet(SAW). O believers! Send blessings upon him and salute him with a worthy salutation. 2. This verse shows us the divine grandeur of the prophet(SAW). Our father Naby Adam(AS) was given similar grandeur but of lower quality when Allah instructed the angels to prostrate to him where He said And when we said unto angels: prostrate yourselves to Adam(AS), they fell prostrate, all save Iblis(Satan), he demurred through pride, so he became a disbeliever. Here even though grandeur to Adam(AS) but Allah called him by his name prostrate yourselves to Adam. But in the case of the holy prophet(SAW) Allah didnt address him by his name rather he said prophet, on the prophet. In the case of Adam(AS) only angels prostrate in his respect and at a particular point in time which has now passed and therefore is only history. Human beings are out of it. But in the case of holy prophet(SAW) is Allah
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Himself that say salat to him not at one point in time indicated by fil mudariy (Yusalluna). All angels joined too, and not at one point in time, but continues. Believers too joined and they too not one point in time, but continues. 3. A reknown scholar Allama Sakhawi(RA) narrated meeting someone in San (Yemen) who deliberately changed this verse when reciting the holy Qurn he said Yusalluna ala aliyin nabiyin(..say salat to Aliyu the prophet) as soon as he said that he became dumb, blind and leper instantly for that arrogance. May Allah prevent us from any act of arrogance to the grandeur of the holy prophet(SAW), Ameen. 4. When this verse was revealed the blessed companions of the prophet(SAW) came to him(SAW) and asked Ya Rasulullah(SAW) alimnat taslim kaifa nusalli alayka?(O! messenger of Allah(SAW) we know how to greet(taslim) but how can we say salat to you? The prophet(SAW) then say Allahumma salli ala Muhammadin wa ala ali muhammadin(O! Allah shower thy blessings upon Muhammad and upon descendant of Muhammad)This provides formula for salat and not restricts salat to this one alone as Wahabis are prospecting. There are other salat the prophet(SAW) taught some of his sahaba like Aliy bn Abi Talib(RA) and therefore this one is not closing the door of other forms of salat otherwise the blessed prophet(SAW) will not give other forms of salat. The formulation provides bedrock of salat, that all salat shall start with Allahumma(This is known as the Sending principle) and should be on the prophet(SAW) first and foremost, then it may be extended to his closest ones like descendants.
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5. Scholars discussed exhaustively on the sending principles. The principle is a mystical one, where Allah instructed us to say blessings(salat) to the prophet(SAW) then we return this to Him asking Him to say blessings(salat) to the prophet(SAW). Allama Sakhawi(RA) in his book Qauli Badi explained the reason for such. Other scholars who shared the same reason with Allama Sakhawi(RA) include Allama Zirqani(RA) in his book sharhi Mawahib and Allama Neishapuri(RA) in his book Lataf wa Hikm. The reason as established by sufis grandmasters is the fact that there is no any believer be him prophet or saint that is holy enough to have the audacity to send blessings to the immense and holy personality of the prophet(SAW), none have such power. Therefore, nobody can do so, hence we asked Allah who is the only that can send blessings to such a powerful personality like the prophet(SAW), by saying Allahumma. 6. Sufis grandmasters explained when a time comes that murshid Kamil (A Sheikh) to guide one in Sufism, to nurse one until one stands on his feet in journey to Allah(SWT) none was found on the place where one lives and no way for one to travel elsewhere in search of Murshid Kamil, scholars of Sufism said one can frequent saying salat to the prophet(SAW) that can be a substitute until one gets a murshid Kamil. Nowadays there are many situations that may warrant taking salat to the prophet(SAW) as murshid Kamil, even on temporal basis as it always is, let me cite some of them: a. A sufi jailed wrongly by unjust leaders, he was denied the chance to see his murshid Kamil, he
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can resolved to saying salat to the prophet(SAW) to replace his missing sheikh, until he was released from jail. b. A sufi whose sheikh passed to the glory of the Almighty and no Khalifa is appointed yet, he can resolve to saying salat to the prophet(SAW) until the day Khalifah is appointed or nominated. c. A sufi who travelled out of his sheikhs town and is to stay away for long period of time, he too is to resolve to saying salat to the prophet(SAW) as murshid kamil. d. A sufi whose sheikh is arrested or jailed by unjust leaders, should also resolve to saying salat to the prophet(SAW) as murshid kamil. e. A sufi on sick bed or on treatment and his health cannot allow him to do suhbat to his sheikh, he too is to resolve to saying salat to the prophet(SAW) to cover this deficiency of his. 7. Saying salat to the prophet(SAW) is a best act above worships one can do. It is best act because there is no act whatsoever it is apart from saying salat to the prophet(SAW) that one can do and by so doing joins angels and Almighty Allah in doing it. It is above worship because Allah did not conduct any worship because all worships are done to Him, but He say salat to the prophet(SAW), therefore saying salat to the prophet(SAW) is not worship rather above worship. 8. The celebrated scholar of Exegesis, sheikh Zamakshari(RA) was of the opinion that it is an obligation on every Muslim to say salat to the prophet(SAW) whenever his name was mentioned. This opinion is supported by the following tradition: The Prophet _ climbed the pulpit (mimbar) and said
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Amen.Then he climbed it again and said Amen. Then he did it a third time. Muadh (may Allah be pleased with him) questioned him about this and the Prophet _ said Jibril (peace be upon him) came and said to me, Muhammad _, whenever you are mentioned by name in front of a person, and he does not bless you, and subsequently dies, he will enter the fire. Allah will put him far away. Say Amen. So I said Amen. He said, When Ramadan comes and it is not accepted from him and he dies, it is the same. If someone has two parents or one of them and he does not show devotion and goodness to them and he dies, it is the same. Another tradition says A miser is someone who doesnt bless me when my name is mentioned in his presence. 9. Salat to the prophet(SAW) is the first good act after seeking knowledge that was done in the heaven at the time of the creation of Naby Adam(AS). When our forefather naby Adam(AS) was created, he taught angels as we discussed earlier, thereafter Allah created Eve(RA) out of Adams(AS) ribs. When he saw her, he approached her and he was instructed to pay her dowry before she will be married to him. The dowry according to all Islamic biographers of Adam(AS) is salat to the prophet(SAW); this is to tell you how significant salat to the prophet(SAW) is. It was recited here before the prophet(SAW) took human form(his birth). Ever since any marriage of Ahlil Sunnah is forever done with the recitation of salat to the prophet(SAW) even though dowry has now been substituted with money. 10. A goal I was pursueing sometimes ago, having spent a year without getting it and with no trace of getting it, I recited salatil Fatih only once and did Tawassul to Allah with it to achieve such a difficult goal. Three days after, I achieved this goal successfully. This is out of the graces Allah accorded to salat to his beloved prophet(SAW) a task He instructed us to participate in doing it. However, later
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my MurshidKamil (RA) warned me against using the immense thing like salat to the prophet(SAW) for a mere worldly thing, he said it doesnt worth such a huge price! 11. It was narrated that there live a rich man very fond of reciting salat to the prophet(SAW) and concentrated in doing that. When harsh business weather blew his business bad he became bankrupt and collected a loan to reinforce his business. The loan was consumed and no money to repay back the loan. His creditor, after trying all efforts to collect back the loan and couldnt he took the matter to court. The Judge fixed a day for refunding of the loan otherwise the debtor will have to go jail. In the night, the man was worried as he doesnt have a dime to take to the court the next day. He then remembered salat to the prophet(SAW) which has became his companion in whatever state he was, therefore he started saying salat to the blessed one(SAW) until dawn. He slept for a little while when he had a dream, he saw the blessed prophet, the Hashimite(SAW). The prophet(SAW) instructed him to go to their village chief and asked him to pay the loan to him base on the prophet(SAW) instruction. The prophet(SAW) further instructed him to inform the chief, that on his daily recitations of salat to the prophet(SAW) one thousand each night, yesterday, the chief was contemplating whether it was one thousand complete or incomplete, that he should tell him that it was one thousand complete. The man went to the chief and conveyed the message. On hearing this, the chief counted the money and gave him. On coming to the court, he counted the money to give the creditor, the Judge then interrupted and said yesterday he saw the prophet(SAW) that instructed him to pay the loan on behalf of the man. He therefore counted the money and gave the creditor. The creditor refused to collect and said he too he had a dream yesterday and saw the
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prophet(SAW) who instructed him to forgive the loan and he has forgiven it. 12. To be continued