Hadiths on the Virtues of Salawat
From Dalail-al-Khayrat of Imam al-Jazuli
English Translation by Aisha Bewley bewley.virtualave.netAllah, ‘azza wa jalla, said: “Allah and His angels call down blessings on the Prophet. O you who believe! Call down blessings on him and ask for complete peace and safety for him.” (Qur’an 33:56) It is related that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came out one day and joy could be seen in his face. He said, “Jibril, peace be upon him, came to me and said, ‘Are you not pleased, O Muhammad, that none of your community blesses you but that I bless him ten times, and none of your community prays for peace on you, but that I pray it for him ten times.'”
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The people most deserving of me are those who pray the most for blessing on me.” The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If someone blesses me, the angels bless him as long as he continues to bless me, so let him diminish that or increase it.” The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “It is enough miserliness in a man that when I am mentioned in his presence, he does not call down blessing on me.
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Pray for blessing for me a lot every Friday.” He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If anyone of my community says one prayer on me, ten good actions are written down for him and ten bad actions are effaced from him.”
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “My intercession will be available on the Day of Rising to anyone who says, after hearing the adhan, ‘O Allah! Lord of this perfect call and established prayer, give Muhammad ‘al-wasila’ and superiority and raise him up to the praiseworthy station which You promised him.”
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If someone blesses me in a book, the angels do not cease to bless him as long as my name is in that book.”
Abu Sulayman ad-Darani said, “If someone wants to ask Allah for a need, he should begin with the prayer on the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then ask Allah for his need, and then seal it with the prayer on the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Allah will accept the two prayers, and is too generous to omit what is between the two.”
It is related that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If someone blesses me 100 times on Friday, he will be forgiven the mistakes of 80 years.”
Abu Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The one who blesses me has a light on the Sirat, and whoever is among the people of light on the Sirat is not one of the people of the Fire.”
The Prophet. may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Whoever forgets the prayer on me has missed the Path of the Garden.” By “forgetting”, he meant omission. As the omitter misses the Path of the Garden, the one who blesses him travels to the Garden.
It is related from”Abdur-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Jibril came to me, peace be upon him, and said, ‘O Muhammad! No one blesses you but that 70,000 angels bless him, and whomever the angels bless is among the people of the Garden.”
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “”Those of you who do the most prayers on me will have the most wives in the Garden.”
It is related that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “When someone blesses me greatly according to what is due me, Allah, ‘azza wa jalla, creates from that word an angel with one wing in the east and one wing in the west with his feet resting in the lowest of the earth, and his neck bowed under the Throne. Allah, ‘azza wa jalla, says to him, ‘Bless My slave as he blessed My Prophet,’ and he will continue to bless him until the Day of Resurrection.”
It is related that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “People will come to the Water Basin on the Day of Resurrection whom I will only recognise by the great amount that they asked for blessings for me.”
It is related that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If someone blesses me once, Allah blesses him ten times; and if someone blesses me ten times, Allah blesses him one hundred times; and if someone blesses me one hundred times, Allah blesses one thousand times; and whoever blesses me one hundred times, Allah will forbid his body to the Fire, strengthen him with a firm word in the life of this world and in the Next in the questioning, and He will admit him to the Garden. His prayers on me will come to him as a light on the Day of Resurrection on the Sirat, visible at a distance of 500 years, and Allah will give him a castle in the Garden for every prayer that he prayed for me, whether there is little or a lot.”
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “There is no slave who prays for blessing for me but that the prayer issues quickly from his mouth, and there is no land or sea nor east nor west but that it passes by them and says, ‘I am the prayer of such-and-such a person, which he prayed for the Muhammad, the Chosen, the best of Allah’s creation,’ and there is nothing which does not bless him. From that prayer a bird is created for him which has 70,000 wings, and on every wing are 70,000 feathers, and in every feather are 70,000 faces, and in every face are 70,000 mouths, and in every mouth are 70,000 tongues, and every tongue glorifies Allah ta’ala in 70,000 languages, and Allah writes for him the reward of all of that.”
It is related from ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If someone asks for blessing on me 100 times on Friday, when the Day of Resurrection comes, he will come with a light, and had that light been divided among all of creation, it would have been enough for them.”
It is mentioned in some traditions that written on the leg of the Throne is, “If someone yearns for Me, I show mercy to him. If someone asks of Me, I give to him. If someone draws near to Me by the prayer on Muhammad, I forgive him his wrong actions, even if they were as much as the froth of the sea.”
It is related that one of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with all of them, said, “There is no gathering in which our master Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is blessed but that a pleasant scent spreads from it until it reaches the clouds of the sky and the angels say, ‘This is a gathering in which Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is blessed.'”
It is mentioned in some traditions that when a believing slave, male or female, begins the prayer on Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the doors of heaven are opened to him as well as its pavilions as far as the Throne. Not an angel remains in the heavens who does not bless our master Muhammad and ask for forgiveness for that slave, male or female as Allah wills.
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,, “If someone has a pressing need, he should increase the prayer on me, for it removes cares, griefs and sorrows, and it increases provision and fulfils needs.”
It is related that one of the righteous said, “I had a neighbour who was scribe. He died, and I saw him in a dream and I asked him, ‘What has Allah done with you?’ He replied, ‘He has forgive me.’ I asked, ‘For what reason?’ He said, ‘When I used to write the name of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in a book, I blessed him, so my Lord has covered me with what no eye has seen nor ear has heard nor has occurred to a mortal heart.'”
It is reported from Anas that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “None of you believes until I am more beloved to him than himself and what he possesses and his son and father and all people.” In a hadith, ‘Umar said, “O Messenger of Allah, you are more beloved to me than everything except my self which is between my sides.” So he, blessing and peace be upon him, said to him, “You will not be a believer until I am more beloved to you than your self.” So ‘Umar said, “By He who revealed the Book to you, you are more beloved to me than my self.” So the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Now, ‘Umar, your iman is complete.”
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked, “When will I be a believer (or in another variant, a sincere believer)?” He answered, “When you love Allah.” It was asked, “And when will I love Allah?” He replied, “When you love His Messenger.” It was said, “And when will I love His Messenger?” He said, “When you follow his Path, apply his sunna, love with his love and hate with his hate, and choose friends those he befriends and choose enemies by his enmity. People differ in faith according to their difference in love of me, and they differ in kufr according to their hate for me.”
Is it not the case that there is no iman for whoever has no love of him? Is it not the case that there is no iman for whoever has no love of him? Is it not the case that there is no iman for whoever has no love of him?
It was said to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “We see believers who are humble and believers who are not humble. What is the reason for that?” He replied, “The one who experiences sweetness in his faith is humble, and the one does not experience it is not humble.” It was asked, “By what is it found, or obtained and gained?” He answered, “By sincere love for Allah.” It was asked, “And by what is love of Allah found or by what is it gained?” He said, “By love of His Messenger. So seek the pleasure of Allah and the pleasure of His Messenger through loving them.”
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked, “Who are the family of Muhammad whom we are commanded to love, honour and show reverence to?” He replied, “The people of purity and fidelity who believes in me and are sincere.” He was asked, “What are their signs?” He answered, “Preferring love of me above every other beloved and being occupied inwardly remembering me after remembering Allah.” In another variant: “Their sign is constantly remembering me and frequently asking for blessing upon me.”
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked, “Who is the one strongest in faith in you?” He answered, “The one who did not see me and yet believed in me with yearning for me and sincere love for me. The sign of that is that he would wish to give all he possesses to see me. (Another variant has: “all the gold in the earth.”) Such is the one who truly believes in me and has sincere true love of me.”
It was said to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “What do you think is that state of those who pray for blessing on you who are not with you or who will come after you?” He said, “I hear the prayer of the people of my love and I know them. The prayer of other than them is presented to me.”
