Go to media page

The Endless Heavenly Rewards of Reciting Salawaat in a Group

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

20 December 2015 Jakarta, Indonesia

Masjid Baitul Ihsan

A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.

Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi 'l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een. Alhamdulillahi ‘Lladhee ja`alana muslimeen wa khalaqana muslimeen wa nawwarana muslimeen wa zahharana muslimeen wa rahimana inshaa’ Allah muslimeen wa adkhalana ‘l-jannata muslimeen, mu’mineen, muwahhideen.

Fa yaa Rabbee min hadha ‘l-masjid al-kareem an tuballighana maa aradna wa an taghfir lana dhunoobana wa an tu`tiyana ma sa’alna fa anta al-kareem, al-jawwad, khazaa’inuka laa tanqus wa laakin khazaa’inuna naaqisa, kulliyatan faarigha. Yaa Rabbi, yaa Allah! afid `alayna min tajalliyaat habeebika ‘l-Mustafa (s).

O mu’min, Muslims! It is very difficult to speak to an audience like this one, because they are not an ordinary jama’ah: this jama`ah is diving into the ocean of love of Prophet (s), they are being dressed by heavenly dresses and angels filling the place. An infinite number of angels are surrounding us, first, because we are in a masjid; second, because we are making salawaat on Prophet (s); third, because we are making dhikrullah.

Prophet (s) said:

إِنَّ لله ملائكة يطوفون في الطرقات يلتمسون مجلاس الذكر

There belong to Allah angels who circle the streets looking for gatherings of dhikr. (Bukhari)

There are angels whom Allah orders only to circumambulate, to roam, like today they can track you with your mobile phone, they know where you are. Do you think angels don’t have a heavenly satellite? Allah (swt) created these types of angels only to look for people in these kind of places. They roam, go around and find these people and come sit with them. That’s why they are sitting here with us, it is the Hadith of the Prophet (s). We are not doing something that's invalid, it is valid! There are an infinite number of angels roaming, coming and entering this masjid doing dhikr with us!

Allah (swt) said:

أَنَا جَلِيْسُ مَنْ ذَكَرَنِي

I sit with him who remembers Me. (Hadith Qudsi. Ahmad, Bayhaqi)

“I am sitting with the one who is remembering Me.” What do you think about angels? Won’t angels come and sit with the ones remembering Allah? That is why the angels are coming and filling up this place.

Here in dunya, we have to know that everything has an origin in Heavens, like Bayt al-Ma`mur in the Fourth Heaven, the origin of the Ka`bah on Earth is Bayt al-Ma`mur in the Heavens. The tajalli that Allah (swt) sent, Manifestations of His Beautiful Names and Attributes, comes on Bayt al-Ma`mur then reflects on the Ka`bah. Everything has an origin; we also have an origin, there is an origin for what we are doing here. For example, if someone is sick doctors use a laser to heal him, they do an ultrasound, they can send acute magnetic waves on the patient to treat the sickness. What is its origin? A laser is energy, so it’s coming from there and fixes people. What do you think about angels, don’t they have a heavenly laser? Every one of us has angels on and beside us.

The Prophet’s Du`a of Light

اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ فِي قَلْبِي نُورًا , وَفِي سَمْعِي نُورًا , وَفِي بَصَرِي نُورًا , وَعَنْ يَمِينِي نُورًا , وَعَنْ شِمَالِي نُورًا , وَأَمَامِي نُورًا , وَخَلْفِي نُورًا , وَفَوْقِي نُورًا , وَتَحْتِي نُورًا , وَاجْعَلْ لِي نُورًا

Allahumma `ajal fee qalbee nooran, wa fee sam`ee nooran, wa fee basaree nooran, wa `an yameenee nooran, wa `an shimaaleee nooran, wa amaamee nooran, wa khalfee nooran, wa fawqee nooran, wa tahtee nooran, wa `ajal lee noora.

O Allah! Place Light in my heart, Light in my tongue, Light in my hearing, Light in my sight, Light behind me, Light in front of me, Light on my right, Light on my left, Light above me and Light below me; make me Light. (Bukhari and Muslim)

“O Allah! Make from above me noor, from behind me noor, from my right noor, from my left noor, from my front noor, from my back noor, and make me noor.” If these are the words and the Prophet (s) is using this du`a, won’t Allah make you noor? He will make every one of us noor with the praises of the angels He is sending! When the heavenly angels look at us from heavenly sources, they will see noor on us, they will not see us with physical bodies, but with subtle bodies that are full of noor! That is why when making dhikr and salawaat, angels bless and encompass you with the Light that Allah ordered them to bring on His servants.

Allah (swt) said:

ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ

Call on Me, I will answer you. (Surah Ghafir, 40:60)

If every one of us makes du`a, Allah will accept our du`a? He said, “Make du`a, I will accept.” So when we say, “Yaa Allah, make on top of my head noor,” what type of noor? When we make that du`a, Allah said, “Make du`a, I accept,” so yaa Rabbee, we are making that du`a, “Make noor on us!” Allah will give you noor from the verse:

اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ

Allah is the Light of the Heavens and Earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a niche and within it a lamp. (Surat an-Noor, 24:35)

From that Light, Allah will dress you from top to bottom! Whatever noor Allah described in the Holy Qur'an, He will send on His servant to rejuvenate him, so he can speak by noor, he can hear by noor, he can see by noor, by Allah’s Noor (swt)! For example, there will be no Light if you turn the electricity off, you cannot see anything; the room will be full of people, but you cannot see anything, but put a flashlight over your head so everyone can see you. Allah (swt) doesn’t put a flashlight over our heads to be seen, He sends His Light on us, Noor-i-Ilaahi, from heavenly sources that make us shining and angels in Heavens can see us individually, one by one and call us by our name, because that Noor identifies us like our thumbprint, there is a heavenly thumbprint, the noor that identifies our names in Akhirah.

Allah (swt) has sent noor on us up to our heads and underneath us also, because we are between two heavenly Lights on top and bottom. That Light is the tasbeeh from angels and it will be with us until the Day of Judgement and the reward will be written for us that we covered ourselves with Light. For example, when we travel with a suitcase they wrap it with plastic so that no rain will affect it, it will be saved and free from damage. Also these two noors that we are between from top and bottom, left and right, front and back, we are wrapped with them and Shaytan cannot steal it from our hearts. With one salawaat on Prophet (s), you become wrapped with noor that will dress you. That’s why the Hadith says:

من صلى علي مرة صلى الله عليه بها عشرا

Whoever prays on me one time, Allah prays on him ten times. (Muslim, Ahmad, Nisa’i,)

No one can understand what kind of ten rewards Allah (swt) will give you because in doing one salawaat Allah is giving you endless rewards times ten!. Every salawaat is made by Allah through His angels. Allah is making you like a flashlight and every place you go or move angels are seeing you. They will know that person was sitting in that association in that time in that place and will know your name you were given in that association, and in every association human beings get a different name. They will know your names as they are written on your forehead; angels can know your endless names! They know you and, if in that group they are not doing salawaat and you are, then you become a noor that gives Light to everyone in the association, emitting Light to attract them to be guided inshaa-Allah in the future!

When you read salawaat or qaseedah books full of salawaats, Allah will dress you with the meaning, the barakah and the Light of that salawaat not only for the one reading it, but that Light will go to the one who wrote it, the one who printed it, the one who sold it, the one who read it, and the one who saw it, so even if you are carrying that salawaat book it will emit a Light and wherever you come and go that Light will follow you!

What do you think then if you are carrying the Holy Qu'ran with you? There is a Light that emits from every letter of the Holy Qur'an, so when you carry or recite the Holy Qur'an that Light will go from that letter to your heart. Even those who don’t know how to read, just by looking at the verses Allah will send Light from them, because it is Allah’s Ancient Words and the Qur’an speaks to us, but it needs some people with special ears and eyes to hear and see.

إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ

Truly We have revealed the Remembrance, and truly We protect it. (Surat al-Hijr, 15:9)

“We have revealed and sent down the dhikr and the dhikr is the Holy Qur’an.” Allah called it ‘dhikr,’ so if we do the dhikr we will be rewarded as if we read the Holy Qur’an, as Prophet (s) said that whoever reads “Qul Huw Allahu Ahad” three times, it is as if he read the whole Qu'ran as the rewards of every recitation of Surat al-Ikhlaas is equal to one-third of Holy Qur'an, so to have the Holy Qur’an always with you is a great ni`mah. If carrying the Holy Qur’an is a great ni`mah, what do you think about memorizing the Holy Qur’an in your heart? If Allah (swt) opens that noor in the heart of one haafiz, people will faint! On the Day of Judgement all hufaaz will be called and Allah will open their hearts for the noor to be seen on the Plain of Resurrection, everyone will see them and they will change everything to bright colors due to the noor Allah put in their hearts because they memorized the Qur’an.

Those who are not haafiz, what must they do? Allah didn’t leave them with nothing. Allah also gave them so much! That is why Prophet (s) said, “Allah gave something for you to be like a haafiz: recite “Qul Huw Allahu Ahad” (Surat al-Ikhlaas) three times and it is as if you have memorized the entire Holy Qur'an.” That is why before and after their prayers, `ulama and awliya recite three “Qul Huw Allahu Ahad,” so it is as if they read the whole Holy Qur'an and Allah will send that reward to their hearts.

It is said that Surat al-Yaseen is the heart of Qur’an and Surat al-Fatihah is the heart of Surat al-Yaseen. If the Fatihah is the heart of Yaseen, that means that Fatihah is the heart of Prophet (s). Whenever we recite Surat al-Fatihah, Allah (swt) will dress us with the Light that He is dressing Prophet (s) with, so with all these rewards, angels are sitting with you when you are sitting in such an association remembering Allah (swt) and they have been ordered to encircle us all the way to Heaven!

Therefore, if you make salawaat on Prophet (s), how many salawaat Allah will send back to you? Allah will send back ten. Awliya inherit the ma`aani, meanings of the salawaat and Qur’an from Prophet (s). Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) said Allah is generous and nothing limits His Generosity, He gives without counting, not like us, we give and count. Allah gives and His Treasures are full, never diminishing from His giving. So if we are here, two people making salawaat, I will get the benefit of two and the other brother will get the benefit of two, as well. If we are two people making one salawaat together, it will be multiplied by two, because we are the cause of each other doing it, we were the reason for the other person to recite, so Allah will reward each twice, and that is other than the ten, as if you did it two times. If there are three people, you will get benefit of three salawaat; if we are 100, you will get the benefit of 100, everyone! If we are like we are tonight, 2,000 or 3,000, for every salawaat everyone will take three thousand rewards, not only one or ten.

Allah will give endlessly, it doesn’t affect Him, so keep asking as He will give. If you are 3,000 or 5,000 people and you make one salawaat, everyone will get according to the number of people present. If you make three salawaat and you are 5,000 people, you will get rewards of making 15,000 salawaat, and it goes like that. If you make 100 salawaat and you are 5,000 people, it is like you did 500,000. Allah’s Generosity is like an atomic reaction: when it ignites it continues exploding and exploding and exploding. Salawaat is an explosion against Shaytan, it will kill him, because he is jealous of Prophet (s) and he thought he should be granted al-Maqaam al-Mahmood, but Allah (swt) gave it to Prophet (s) and no one else, so Shaytan is jealous of human beings. The best remedy for us is to make salawaat, because it will kill all his work and make you clean as if you are newly born! Let us recite one salawaat, it will be multiplied and everyone will get the benefit as if we read it 3,000 times:

Salaat al-Faatih

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ الفاتِحِ لِمَا أُغْلِقَ و الخاتِمِ لِمَا سَبَقَ نَاصِرِ الحَقِّ بَالحَقَّ و الهَادِي إلى.صِرَاطِكَ المُسْتَقِيمِ و عَلَى آلِهِ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ و مِقْدَارِهِ العَظِيم

Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik `alaa sayyidinaa Muhammadini 'l-faatihi limaa ughliq, wa 'l-khaatimi limaa sabaq, naasiri 'l-haqqi bi 'l-haqq, wa 'l-haadi ilaa siraatika 'l-mustaqeem, wa `alaa aalihi haqqa qadrihi wa miqdaarihi 'l-`azheem.

O Allah, bless our liege-lord Muhammad who opened what was closed and who sealed what had gone before; he makes the Truth Victorious by the Truth and he is the guide to your straight path; and bless his household as it befits his immense stature and splendor.

This is one, but in the Scale it is multiplied by number of people who are here. Don’t think that’s too much. No! Allah gave you a ni'mah, favor, so it has to be with no limit! The importance is not only that we make the salawaat and take the benefit multiplied by the number of people, but also we take the reward on the number of angels making salawaat, and their salawaat doesn’t end because they are ordered to make salawaat and encircle us up to the Heavens! Allah knows how much, we cannot imagine a number, it is beyond our comprehension! All of that will be written in our notebook and we will be dressed with the Light that comes with that salawaat .

Allah will be happy with us when we make salawaat, because He ordered His angels to make salawaat, as He said to us:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا

Verily, Allah and His angels send praise on the Prophet. O Believers! Pray upon him and greet him with a worthy salutation. (Surat al-Ahzaab, 33:56)

He ordered us to make salawaat, so make Allah (swt), His angels and Prophet (s) happy with us by making excessive salawaat, not limited, make it in every moment! I know people who make it day and night, sending millions of salawaat on Prophet (s). What do you think about them? Especially today on the Internet they want to reach one million in the month of Rabi` al-Awwal. Anyone who does that will get millions in his notebook because social media helps you to share with other people, so use it in a good way, not bad. When you make one million salawaat with other people, you will benefit as if you said them all yourself!

After a while we all leave from here, the salawaat will stop, but in reality it doesn't, in Heavens it does not stop. Our salawaat will be conducted by angels continuously until the Day of Judgement and it will be written for everyone in their notebook.

When we see a wali, a pious, sincere person, we come and sit with him, is it not? We say, “Can I take a photo?” and he says, “Yes, take a photo.” Why do they take a photo? Because that wali is a spotlight, he attracts people’s hearts and they like to take a photo so they can remember one day they sat with that wali. We are happy to be in front of a wali, to be in front of an important person like an `alim, we are very happy to take a photo. What do you think of angels taking our photos, our pictures, to keep it with us that in that moment when we sat in that association with those pure people making salawaat or dhikr? We will have the picture with the date in our notebook on the Day of Judgement! That’s why it is mentioned by the Prophet (s) as part of a strong Hadith:

قال يقول فكيف لو أنهم رأوها قال يقولون لو أنهم رأوها كانوا أشد عليها حرصا وأشد لها طلبا وأعظم فيها رغبة

He says, and He knows better than them, ‘What are they asking Me for?’ They reply, ‘They are asking You for the Garden.’ He says, ‘Have they seen it?’ They reply, ‘No, our Lord.’ He says, ‘How would it be if they were to see it?’

Allah (swt) will ask His angels what His servants would do if they saw His Favor on them. They said, “They would do their dhikr very strongly to get Your Mercy.”

So Allah wants us to make salawaat and dhikr in order to reward us, and how He will reward us is what’s important. How will He reward us sitting here or in another masjid or in Madinah or Mecca? What will He reward us with? What kind of reward are we looking for? He will give you a reward that a scale can in no way measure, it is beyond the Scale. You cannot measure it, no one can understand it, no one can reach it, no one can visualize what Allah will give you when making salawaat and dhikr. There is something special that Allah (swt) will give you.

وَالسَّمَاءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ

The sky, He raised it and placed the Balance. (Surat al-Rahman, 55:7)

He raised the Heavens, the sky and universe without pillars. To put a masjid with a dome we need pillars, but Allah (swt) raised all the galaxies without pillars, then He put the Scale. Even the Scale will not carry what Allah wants to give to you as a special reward for your salawaat and dhikr, even for one time!

What do you want better than the company of a good person? If you see a good person you accompany him, like the Sahaabah (r) accompanied Prophet (s) and Allah rewarded them and called them ‘Sahaabah’. No one can be like the Sahaabah, it is a speciality for them only because they were with Prophet (s) and they saw him. For us, we follow them: we didn’t see Prophet (s) but still we get the rewards. Allah will give you a special reward when you make salawaat and dhikr that no one can measure. As we said, Allah (swt) said it in a Holy Hadith to His Prophet (s), “I sit with him who remembers Me (who makes makes salawaat and dhikr.)” What do you want more than that? If Allah is saying to you, “I am with you! Make salawaat on Prophet (s), remember Me, I will definitely be with you forever, but make salawaat and dhikr,” what more do you want? That is beyond Heavens, beyond everything!

Allah is showing us His love and we show love to Him by remembering Him and making salawaat, then Allah will compensate us by sitting with us, not in the physical meaning, but in the spiritual meaning: He will send His Immense Light, His Immense Rahmah on our hearts and will dress us with the Gardens of Heavens and make us noor! That is why we recite the Prophet’s Du`a of Light:

اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ فِي قَلْبِي نُورًا , وَفِي سَمْعِي نُورًا , وَفِي بَصَرِي نُورًا , وَعَنْ يَمِينِي نُورًا , وَعَنْ شِمَالِي نُورًا , وَأَمَامِي

نُورًا , وَخَلْفِي نُورًا , وَفَوْقِي نُورًا , وَتَحْتِي نُورًا , وَاجْعَلْ لِي نُورًا

Allahumma `ajal fee qalbee nooran, wa fee sam`ee nooran, wa fee basaree nooran, wa `an yameenee nooran, wa `an shimaaleee nooran, wa amaamee nooran, wa khalfee nooran, wa fawqee nooran, wa tahtee nooran, wa `ajal lee noora.

O Allah! Place Light in my heart, Light in my tongue, Light in my hearing, Light in my sight, Light behind me, Light in front of me, Light on my right, Light on my left, Light above me and Light below me; make me Light. (Bukhari and Muslim)

Wa ‘s-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.

http://sufilive.com/The-Benefits-of-Reciting-Salawat-in-a-Group--6090.html

© Copyright 2016 Sufilive. All rights reserved. This transcript is protected

by international copyright law. Please attribute Sufilive when sharing it. JazakAllahu khayr.

UA-984942-2