Sending Salams Upon the Prophet by Shaykh Ammar AlShukry

Sending Salams Upon the Prophet

All praise is due to Allah. We seek His guidance and His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves and the whispering of our desires. Whom Allah guides, no one can misguide, and whom He allows to be misled, no one can guide.

And I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone having no partners, and that Muhammad ﷺ is His slave and His messenger and His perfect worshipper. To proceed, the Prophet ﷺ is the one who Allah used to grant us the greatest blessing that we experience, and that is the blessing of Islam. And we remember the Prophet ﷺ because we love him.

A person cannot help but to constantly remember the one that they love. And Allah Himself mentions the Prophet ﷺ and praises the Prophet. And He did not do this once, but He continues to do so — and the angels as well.

Allah says:

Allah says: Allah and His angels send their salah upon the Prophet ﷺ. O you who believe, send your salah upon Rasulullah ﷺ and taslim — and praise.

So what is Allah's salah? What does this word mean? Ibn Abbas says that the angels yubarrikoon — that they send blessings or invoke blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ. And Ibn Kathir says that Allah's salah upon Rasulullah ﷺ is His praise of the Prophet ﷺ in the highest company, فِي الْمَلَأِ الْأَعْلَى. And so Allah is inviting the believers to send their salah upon Rasulullah ﷺ so that the inhabitants of the earth can praise the Prophet ﷺ in harmony with the inhabitants of the heavens.

So that the inhabitants of the heavens as they are praising Rasulullah ﷺ — Allah and His angels — the inhabitants of the earth join in, that the Prophet ﷺ be praised on earth like he is praised in the heavens. And so when I'm sending salam upon the Prophet ﷺ, I'm not doing this simply of my own accord, and I'm not doing this by myself. But rather when I do it, I am joining the symphony, the harmony of the hosts of the heavens as they are invoking the salam upon the Prophet ﷺ.

And so in this short khutbah, insha'Allah, I wanted to simply mention some of the virtues of sending salam upon Rasulullah ﷺ. It is an act that we all learned as children, or we learned early on in our Islam. But sometimes we forget, and it's important to be reminded. Allah says:

Because reminding benefits the believers.

Virtues of Sending Salam Upon the Prophet ﷺ

1. It Is Especially Recommended on Friday

It is something that is extremely recommended to be done on Friday. Rasulullah ﷺ says in the hadith of Aws ibn Aws, reported by Abu Dawood:

(Sunan Abi Dawood, Hadith 1047)

He says that the best of your days is Friday. So send a lot of salam upon me, a lot. فَإِنَّ صَلَاتَكُمْ مَعْرُوضَةٌ عَلَيَّ — because your salah upon me is presented to me.

And the companions said, "Ya Rasulullah, how is it going to be presented to you when you have passed away?" And so Rasulullah ﷺ said: إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ حَرَّمَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ أَجْسَادَ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ — that Allah has prohibited the earth from consuming the flesh of prophets.

And so we are told to send a lot of salam upon Rasulullah ﷺ on Friday. The question then becomes, what is "a lot"? Is 10 a lot? Is 20 a lot? Is 50 a lot? Is 100 a lot? Is 1,000 a lot? The reality is the Prophet ﷺ did not define what akthar is. He did not define what "a lot" is.

And so that means that it is up to every single individual — whatever you consider to be a lot, then you've done your job for that Friday. So for some people, a lot could be 100. But for someone else, 100 could be very little. And for some people, 500 could be a lot. And for some people, 500 could be little. For some people, 50 could be a lot. And for some people, 50 could be very little. So everyone is responsible for whatever they are capable of doing — whatever is a lot for them — that they seek to send a lot of salam upon the Prophet ﷺ on Friday.

2. It Removes Your Burdens, Erases Your Sins, and Solves Your Problems

Ubayy ibn Ka'b, in the hadith reported by al-Tirmidhi, he says, "Ya Rasulullah, I make a lot of salat upon you in my du'a. How much of my du'a should I dedicate to sending salam upon you?"

He says: الرُّبُعُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ — Should I make a fourth of my du'a sending salam upon you? And the Prophet ﷺ says to him:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2457)

Whatever you wish. But if you increase, it is better for you. And then he says الثُّلُثُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ — A third, Ya Rasulullah? He says, whatever you want. But if you add more, it's better. He says النِّصْفُ — the half? He says the same thing. He says to him الثُّلُثَيْنِ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ — Two-thirds, Ya Rasulullah? He says, whatever you want. But if you do more, that's better for you.

And then Ubayy ibn Ka'b says: "Ya Rasulullah, أَجْعَلُ لَكَ صَلَاتِي كُلَّهَا — Should I make all of my du'a just sending salam upon you?" And the Prophet ﷺ says:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2457)

He says: if you do that, your hamm — your stress, your anxiety — it will be relieved. And your sin will be forgiven.

So we learn from this hadith that sending salat upon the Prophet ﷺ is a cause for the release and resolving of my problems. But not only that — also the forgiveness of my sins.

A question then becomes: what is the relationship between me sending salam upon the Prophet ﷺ and my problems being resolved? The answer to that is yes, there is an equation. Because we look in another hadith reported by Muslim, the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As, that Rasulullah ﷺ says:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 384)

Whoever sends one salam upon me, one invocation of blessings upon me, Allah sends ten upon them.

So now we understand how it solves a person's problems. Because if every time I send one salam upon the Prophet ﷺ, Allah is cascading ten upon me — then what problem is going to exist in the presence of Allah sending His peace and blessings upon me? The peace and blessings of Allah that is being multiplied, that I am now experiencing, is obviously going to wash away whatever problems I have. Allah's salam and salat is so great, so benevolent. And when it's being multiplied, there's nothing that can stand in that way.

3. It Brings You Closer to the Prophet ﷺ on the Day of Judgment

Through salat upon the Prophet ﷺ, you become close to Rasulullah ﷺ on the Day of Judgment. He says in the hadith reported by al-Tirmidhi, the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 484)

He says that the people who are most deserving of proximity to me on the Day of Judgment are those who send the most salam upon me.

The ones who send the most salam upon the Prophet ﷺ are the ones who are closest to him on the Day of Judgment. But not only are they the closest to him on the Day of Judgment, they are closest to him in the dunya as well.

Sheikh Muhammad Hassan, the Egyptian scholar, he mentions that he met a girl — he was introduced to a girl who was 16 years old. And this girl had seen the Prophet ﷺ in her dream so many times. When he was told about this, he asked her and said, "How many times do you send salam upon the Prophet ﷺ?" And she said, "Every day no less than 10,000 times."

He mentions another woman that he met — he would go, as a sheikh, to visit some of the poor villages in Egypt. He said he met this old woman while coming with a team of doctors to do some charity work. And this woman did not stop sending salam upon the Prophet ﷺ. The entire time, her breath was sending salam upon Rasulullah ﷺ. Then she described some ailment to him, but he didn't have the doctors with him on that particular trip. So he said to her, "Don't worry, I will come next week and I will bring some doctors for the ailment that you have."

And she said to him, "No. I know my ailment and I know the cure." She said, "My ailment is that for the past three nights, I did not see the Prophet ﷺ in a dream. That's my ailment." She is so used to seeing Rasulullah ﷺ in her dreams because of her abundance of sending salam upon the Prophet ﷺ, that when she did not see him for three days, she became sick. She says, "I know the ailment and I know the cure."

So sending salam upon the Prophet ﷺ brings a person closer to Rasulullah ﷺ in the akhirah, and in the dunya before the akhirah as well.

4. It Is the Prophet's Right Upon You

Also of the virtues of sending salam upon Rasulullah ﷺ is that it is his right. That whenever someone does something for you, Rasulullah ﷺ tells us that if you have the ability to repay a person, then you should repay them. And if you can't repay them, then you should at least invoke a prayer for them — you say جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا. Now what if that person has passed away? The least thing you do is invoke Allah's mercy for them.

You know that one of the scholars of Islam said: قَبِيحٌ بِكُمْ أَنْ تَنْقُلُوا عَنَّا وَلَا تَتَرَحَّمُوا عَلَيْنَا — It is very ugly of you that you narrate from us our knowledge. You read the books of Imam al-Bukhari, you benefit from al-Nawawi, and you don't say رَحِمَهُمُ اللَّهُ — that you benefit from their life and you don't invoke Allah's mercy.

Could you imagine — you meet a person and they're talking about their parents left and right. They're talking about their mom, they're talking about their dad, and they never invoke Allah's mercy on them. You'd say: the least you can do is that when you mention your father, you say رَحِمَهُ اللَّهُ. The least you can do is that when you mention your mom, you say رَحِمَهَا اللَّهُ. رَبِّ ارْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِي صَغِيرًا. It's very ugly that a person is mentioning people who have done so much for them and they don't even do the smallest benefit.

And so if you understand that, then you can see how great it is when a person mentions the name of Rasulullah ﷺ and they don't move their tongue to say ﷺ. And so the Prophet ﷺ criticizes that individual and he says:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3545)

May the nose of that person be in dust — the one in whose presence I am mentioned and they don't say ﷺ.

And the Prophet ﷺ in another hadith reported by al-Tirmidhi says:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3546)

The stingy person is the one in whose presence I am mentioned and they don't say ﷺ.

5. It Is One of the Etiquettes of Du'a

The last thing that I'll mention is that it is one of the etiquettes of du'a. When you raise your hands to Allah, you want for your du'a to be accepted. But we are taught that there are etiquettes — there are things that a person should do that will make their du'a more likely to be accepted. And of those is what's reported by al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawood in an authentic hadith that the Prophet ﷺ heard a man making du'a:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3477; Sunan Abi Dawood, Hadith 1481)

He did not praise Allah, and he didn't send salam upon the Prophet ﷺ. So Rasulullah ﷺ said: عَجِلَ هَذَا — This person rushed, they were hasty. And then he said: if a person makes du'a, then let them begin by praising Allah and sending salam upon the Prophet ﷺ, and then let them make whatever du'a they wish.

I say what you have heard, and I ask forgiveness from Allah for me and for you, so seek His forgiveness — indeed He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

How to Send Salam Upon the Prophet ﷺ

All praise is due to Allah, and salat and salam upon the Messenger of Allah.

To conclude — how does a person send salam upon the Prophet ﷺ? Well, the easy way is to just say اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ — that when you hear his name you say صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ.

But Rasulullah ﷺ was asked by the companions. They said, "You have commanded us to send salam upon you. How do we send salam upon you?" And so the best version is what the Prophet ﷺ taught, as found in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim:

And so invoking the salam upon the Prophet ﷺ — for those of you who are just joining us — we said that it removes a person's stress, it forgives a person's sins, it places a person close to the Prophet ﷺ, and it is most recommended to do on Friday. And today is Friday.

We ask Allah to accept our actions and to guide us to the best of actions and speech.

And rise to your prayer — may Allah have mercy on you.