Praying for blessings upon the Messenger of Allah

The hadiths on its merit and those exhorting us to say it are too numerous to be counted; but we will mention a few of these, drawing attention to some others and seeking blessings for this book by virtue of their being mentioned.

We relate in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim from ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Āṣ , who related that he heard the Messenger of Allah say: “Anyone who prays to Allah for blessings upon me receives ten blessings himself.” ^[2].

And we relate from the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim from Abū Hurayrah , who reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever prays for one blessing upon me, Allah will send ten blessings upon him.” ^[3].

We relate in the book of at-Tirmidhī from ‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd , who related that the Messenger of Allah said: “The person who will be most deserving and the closest to me on the Day of Judgment will be the one who prayed for the most blessings upon me.” ^[4].At-Tirmidhī describes this hadith as ḥasan. At-Tirmidhī also states that in the same section there are narrations from ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān ibn ‘Awf, ‘Āmir ibn Rabī‘ah, ‘Ammār and Abū Ṭalḥah, Anas and Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, may Allah be pleased with them all.

And we relate from the Sunans of Abū Dāwūd, an-Nasā’ī and Ibn Mājah with ṣaḥīḥ isnāds from Aws ibn Aws , who reported, “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘One of your best days is Friday, so pray for blessings upon me more on Fridays, for your blessings will be presented to me.’ They said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, how will our blessings be presented to you when aramta?’”(The narrator explained that this means ‘you have decomposed’.) “He said: ‘Allah has made the bodies of the Prophets unlawful for the earth [to consume].’” ^[5].

I say aramta has fatḥah on the letter rā’, sukūn on the letter mīm and fatḥah on the letter tā’. Al-Khaṭṭābī said that originally it was armamta but one of the mīms was omitted, which is a dialect form used by some Arabs, as when they say: ‘I continued (ẓaltu) to do that’ i.e. ẓalaltu, which is a comparable instance of a similar nature. Others have said it means arammat ‘it decomposed’ with fatḥah on the letter rā’ and double vowel letter mīm, with a vowel on the letter tā’ which means ‘the bones decomposed’. It is also said that there are other opinions. And Allah knows best.

We relate in the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd at the end of the Book of Ḥajj in the section on visiting graves with a ṣaḥīḥ isnād from Abū Hurayrah , who reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “Do not make my grave a place of celebration but pray for blessings upon me, for your blessings reach me wherever you are.” ^[6].

We also relate from the same source, with a ṣaḥīḥ isnād, from Abū Hurayrah who reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “No-one sends a greeting to me without Allah returning my soul to me so that I may reply to his greeting.” ^[7].