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In the
Name of Allah; the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
“
Allah and His Angels send blessings on the Prophet, O you who believe!
send your blessings on him, and solute him a thorough salutation”.
(33:56) One of the best ways to know the personality of great men is to
study their literature and listen to their words. As Imam Ali states in
Nahjul-Balagha : "Man is hidden behind his tongue” meaning by our words
we introduce ourselves not with our certificates.
Different people according to their job use different jargons.
Politicians have their own jargons, as physicians do, as drivers do etc.
The jargons of truck drivers are different from professors. Therefore,
when people talk you can more or less depending on your skills in this
field can tell which class of society do they belong to.
Today, being the birthday anniversary of Imam Reda (a.s.) I would like
to present to you a very fragrant flower from the garden of Imam Reda ,
i.e. a wisdom word of him. The Hadith is regarding the meaning of
Salawat, something that we every day offer many times. However, many of
us may not know enough if any about the significance of it.
First of all lets read the Hadith:
Sheikh Sadouq one of our distinguishing Olama' who was living in the 4th
century AH has written a book named ‘Oyoun-Akhbarul-Reda' meaning ‘the
fountains of the wisdom words of Imam Reda' . I quote the Hadith under
the consideration from this book.
Imam Reda (a.s.): “O Allah ! send your blessings onto the one that Daily
Prayers is honored with having the Salawat on him'.
Salam and Salawat on the Prophet is an established fact in the Quran. In
Sura 33 Aya 56 we recite:
“ Allah and His Angels send Salat on the Prophet, O you who believe!
send Salat on him, and solute him a thorough salutation”. (33:56)
As far as I know sending Salam and Salawat to the prophet of Islam, is
one of the distinguishing characteristics of our Prophet, of which the
previous prophets were deprived. Muslims across the world from the time
the above Aya has been revealed up to the Day of Great Judgment are
bound to send their Salawat onto the Prophet of Islam. Muslims five
times a day when they call for Adhan and Eqama and even in their daily
Prayers send their Salawat onto the Prophet of Islam.
This is due to the Divine Promise that “And We raised high for you your
esteem” 94:4)
The Etiquette of Presence
When you are at the presence of a highly respected person you use high
titles, like : His Eminence, Dr. Sh. etc. However, when he is absent and
we are talking about him we may not bother about those titles. In
Islamic Erfan the abpve expression is used firstly for Allah (s.w.t) and
then for 14 Infallible. Muslim Gnostics believe they are and they should
be always at the presence of Allah and the 14 infallible, and hence,
they always mention those name with high respect. I don't ever remember
that Imam Khomeini (r.a.) ever mentioned the name of Allah (swt) without
any of His Divine Attributes.
Salawat on the Prophet and his pure progeny comes in this regards.
The Virtues of Salawat:
1. the most valuable deeds in your Scale:
2. An atonement for the sins:
“Whoever, can not make an atonement for his sins, then he should
repeatedly send Salawat on the Prophet and his Ahlul-Bait, for it
destroys the sins thoroughly.”
3. A key to the grant of supplication:
There are many Hadiths stating that in order to have your supplication
granted start your supplication with Salawat and end it with Salawat.
Because, Salawat is an absolutely granted supplication and Allah (swt)
is more merciful than to accept the beginning of your supplication and
the end of it , but does not grant the one in the middle.
4. Remembering the Prophet is equal to remembering Allah:
“Whoever remembers God will receive 10 rewards, and whoever remembers
the Prophet will receive 10 rewards, for Allah has joined His Messenger
to Himself.”
According to a Hadith fro Imam Reda (a.s.) Salawat is equal to Tasbih,
Tahlil and Takbir.
5. The best Word (Dhikr) in the Holy Mosque:
Someone came to Imam Sadiq (a.s.) and said to him that he visited the
Holy Mosque in Mecca . During his rituals he could not remember any
other supplication except Salawat. The Imam replied you had remembered
the best supplication.
6. Salawat ,a treatment to amnesia.
It is practically proven that Salawat will treat the forgetfulness.
7. Daily Prayers is invalid without Salawat.
All of the Maraje' agree that Salawat in Tashahod is compulsory and on
the condition it is not mentioned intentionally then the Prayers is
invalid. Also, Shafe' and Hanbali hold the same opinion for the second
Tashahod.
Salawat in the universe:
The
entire universe is asking the blessings for the Prophet. ‘Allah and His
Angels are sending the blessings to the Prophet'. This is why the
Prophet is ‘the blessings for the universe'. Following this natural
process the believers are recommended to send the blessings onto the
Prophet.
As a matter of fact, all of the Islamic rules are harmonious
with the natural laws. That's why Islam is called the religion of nature
(Fetrat). The universe is constantly asking the blessings for the
‘blessing of the world' and therefore the believers are also recommended
to follow this natural law.
The
Meaning of Salawat:
P1: Salawat is the plural form of Salat which simply means ‘to call' (Do'a).
The reality of calling is that the person who calls tries to attract the
attention of the one who is called to. This type of attracting the
attention if it comes from a higher is called Rahmat (blessing) and if
it comes from a lower is called Do'a (pray).
P2: It is an established fact in Islamic Erfan that the existence of the
Prophet Mohammad (saww) is the first existent came from Allah. In other
words, his existence is on the peak of the cone of the creation. That
means the blessing of existence which contains all other blessings comes
to the prophet first and then goes to others. The prayer of people to
Allah does not reach Him unless through His Messenger, as the blessings
of Allah does not reach His creatures unless through His Messenger.
Therefore, the Salawat of Allah to the Prophet since it comes from Allah
the Omnipotent, He is sending the constant blessings to His Messenger
and hence, the Prophet becomes ‘ Rahmatun-lelalamin' (blessing for the
universe). As, the Salawat of people to the Prophet is to pray to God to
send His blessings to them through the Prophet who is Rahmatun-Lelalamin.
Salawat of the Angels: As the Imam (a.s.) stated in the above Hadith ,
the Salawat of the angels is ‘Tazkeiah' . Tazkeiah means to exonerate
and immaculate. What does it mean?
Each one of the angels is the resemblance of one of the beautiful
attributes of God. No angel can ever resemble all Divine beautiful
attributes. Whereas, the Prophet, being the most perfect man, held all
of the Divine beautiful attributes. This is why his statue is higher
than the angels. To this end, the angels are constantly exonerating and
immaculating the Prophet in the sense that he is free from their
efficiency. This is the meaning of prostration of the angels before
Adam. That means the angels are the servants of the Prophet and his
Ahlul-Bait.
How to
perform the Salawat:
What appears in the Quran about the way Salawat must be conducted is to
send it on to the Prophet. There is nothing regarding ‘Aal' (his pure
family).
To this end, the Shiite will be questioned as why and on which basis do
they add ‘Aal' to the Salawat ?
The answer of this question lies down under the circumstances in which
the Aya was revealed.
Most of the interpreters of the Quran have quoted that once the Aya
under the consideration was revealed , the companions asked the Prophet
of Islam; O Messenger of God ! we know how to say Salam to you but how
should we send Salawat onto you (which was something new for them). The
Prophet (saww) replied: Say:
‘Allahuma salle alaa Mohammad wa Aale Mohammad Kama Salayta Alaa Ibrahim
Ennaka Hamidun Majid.'
Apart from numerous Sunni resources who have quoted the above Hadith,
Imam Reda (a.s.) in a debating meeting with the distinguishing Sunni
scholars has mentioned the Hadith and all agreed upon its accuracy.
More over, there are some other Hadiths in which the Prophet has warned
people to send an incomplete Salwat onto him. When he was asked what did
he mean by incomplete Salawat , he replied: that is to send a Salawat to
me and not to join my Aal with me.
It is interesting to quote that Muslim in his Sahih has opened a chapter
under the heading:
‘ Chapter of Salat on the Prophet'
He has mentioned only two Hadiths in that chapter about the way the
Salawat ought to be conducted. In the both Hadiths it is mentioned to
say: Mohammad and Aal Mohammad. However, it seems Muslim himself or
perhaps the publisher has ignored the contents of the chapter and when
on the top of the chapter the name of the Prophet has been mentioned it
is typed in front of it : Sallalahu alayhe Wa Sallam, the ‘Aal' is
omitted.
In short, one of the reasons that the Prophet (saww) added his ‘Aal' to
his name could be the Aya of Mobahila. |
