Selawat - In Praise Of The Prophet SAW


"Allah and His angels send blessings on the Prophet: O ye who believe! Send ye blessings on him, and salute him with all respect. " (Qur'an 33:56)

'Selawat' to Prophet Muhammad SAW bring lots of benefits and blessings to those who say it. Just like istighfar, tasbih, etc. 'Selawat' was also the practice of the salafusolleh. When digging the trench during the battle of Khandaq, the sahabahs also said 'Selawat' in abundance to raise the spirit of the Mujahideen.

Rasulullah SAW told us an interesting hadith about what happens to a man on Judgement day. He said:

When the judgement day occurs, a man from my ummah is being directed to a place.

When he is nearing the gate of hell, the man cries and asks the angels:

"Where am I taken, O Mailakatul-Rahman?"


"To hell," the angel replies.

"Leave me cry alone here to regret myself,"
the man says.


"It is before, while you were in the world that you should have cried. Today, a cry is of no use anymore," the angel explains.

The man says again, "O Malaikatul-Jabbar. I am a son of Adam. I cannot stand the heat of the fire of hell. If it is cold, I cannot stand its coldness. I am from the ummah of Muhammad SAW. Isn’t there any hope for me from my Lord?"

"What do you hope for from your Lord?"
the angel asks.

"For me not to be punished together with the Jews and the Christians," the man replies.

"That is Muhammad SAW in front of the Lord Al-Jabbar. Call out to your Prophet. Otherwise we will throw you into hell together with the rests," the angel says.

The man then calls out, "Ya, Muhammad! Ya, Rasulullah!"

I (Rasulullah) approach the man and say to the angels, "O Malaikatul-Rahman. Please send back this man to the Mizan (scale)."

"Ya, Muhammad. Verily we are ordered by Allah Taala, and we do not want to disobey the order,"
the angel replies.

I immediately submit and prostrate to Allah Azza wa Jalla, offer my reverence and report the matter to Him. With my SHAFAAT (INTERCESSION), the man is sent back to the Mizan for his rewards and sins to be reweighed. In the end, also with my SHAFAAT, the man is ordered by Allah Taala to be put in paradise. I then say to the man, "Do you recognize who I am?"

"Your face is beautiful and your scent is so sweet, who are you really?"
the man asks.


I say, "I am your Prophet, Muhammad. Your utterances of 'Selawat' for me in the world have been blessed by Allah Taala."

The man then bows down and cries, he says, "O Muhammad Rasulullah. Without you and my ‘Selawat’ for you, I would have certainly be thrown into hell together with the other inhabitants of hell."

- Hadith from Ibn 'Umar

Our Love for the beloved Prophet is a prerequisite for a complete iman and it is not a forced love because the Prophet have already loved us in the first place. He yearned for us long before we even existed…

Are our love for him that great?

“O Allah, grant me the feeling of love for the Prophet as great as his love for his ummah… or even if it's just a small piece of it”.

Selawat and salam be upon you… ya Rasulullah, with this small effort of my struggle, I hope for your shafaat on the day of our meeting... so intercede for us, ya Rasulullah. Ameen ya Rabbal ‘Aalameen.