Will you explain the hadith, "May his nose soil with dust in whose presence mention is made of me and he does not supplicate (utter salawat) for me!"? What is the importance of uttering salawat?

Will you explain the hadith, "May his nose soil with dust in whose presence mention is made of me and he does not supplicate (utter salawat) for me!"? What is the importance of uttering salawat?

Dear Brother / Sister,

" May his nose soil with dust in whose presence mention is made of me and he does not supplicate (utter salawat) for me!" (Tirmidhi, Da'awat 110) 

This hadith was uttered for those who do not utter salawat deliberately for the Prophet.

As it is known, it is a non-ignorable duty and debt of fidelity of every Muslim to say salawat whenever the name of Hazrat Prophet (pbuh) is mentioned.

It is informed that for every Muslim who understands the wisdom of the existence thanks to him, it is fard to say salawat once in the life, wajib for the following mentions and sunnah for repetitions; it is said that skipping salawat causes deprivation from intercession (shafaah).

A person who feels gratitude for someone who does him a favor and a person who shows respect to a person for a long time just for the sake of a cup of coffee will definitely feel gratitude for the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), who was a means for saving his eternal life, and will say salawat with great respect when he hears his name and will attain his intercession with his loyalty.

Our Lord orders us to say salawat for the Prophet in the 56^th verse of the Chapter al-Ahzab:

–Allah and His angels, send blessings on the Prophet: O ye that believe! send ye blessings on him and salute him, with all respect.!

As a necessity of the command of that verse it has been stated that it is fard to say salawat once in the life, wajib for the first hearing of following mentions and sunnah for repetitions in the same place. What is understood is that after each salawat and salam, both our Lord and the angels become pleased; in addition, the angels pray for those who say salawat.

We see in hadith books that the angels pray for the person who says salawat, which causes the rank of our Prophet (pbuh) to rise in Paradise, as “May Allah make your rank rise, too” and other angels say ‘amin’ for that prayer. They react as “May Allah not make your rank rise” for those who do not say salawat and the other angels agree with that reaction by saying ‘amin’.

Thus, those who say salawat when they hear the name of our Prophet (pbuh) receive good prayers from the angels and those who do not say salawat receive the curse of the angels. Furthermore, our Prophet (pbuh) is offended by the unfaithful people of his umma who do not say salawat for him although they hear his name and expresses his reproach as “May his nose be covered with dust.” 

There are numerous kinds of salawat. The most famous of them are the ones that we recite after tahiyyat during prayers: “Allahumma salli ala Muhammadin wa ala ali Muhammad” and “Sallallahu alayhi wasallam”. Their meanings can be summarized as follows:

–May the mercy of our Lord, the asking forgiveness of the angels and our salam (greetings) be upon Hazrat Muhammad and his family.

Since salawat like that are prayers special to our Prophet, our Lord will not reject a prayer special to him.

If we start our special prayers with salawat that is not rejected and finish with salawat, we expect that our prayer between two accepted prayers will be accepted too.

When the name of the Prophet is seen while reading and writing it is the best to say:

–“Allahumma salli ala Muhammadin wa ala ali Muhammad” or “Sallallahu alayhi wasallam”, the initials (pbuh) written in the texts are used to remind salawat.  However, when the salawat signs like that increase in a text, the readers sometimes have difficulty and the signs that are added for respect sometimes may cause disrespect, contrary to what is intended. Instead of causing disrespect, it is better to decrease those signs and leave it to the understanding of the reader.

It cannot be said that salawat said for the Prophet will cause the forgiveness of sins because something like that is not in question. It causes a rise in the rank. Therefore, nobody can estimate and determine the rank of the Prophet because each second salawat like rivers flow from his umma every second and it is understood that the rise in rank will never stop and that it will go on till the doomsday.

A historical example of respect:

Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna always addressed his servant Muhammad, whom he liked a lot, as Muhammad, but once he addressed him using his father’s name. The servant felt bad about it and asked the Sultan why he had addressed him using his father’s name but not using his nice name. The Sultan answered:

–I always had wudu and called that lofty name when I had wudu. Now I do not have wudu! I felt ashamed to pronounce that name without wudu!

Those who show laziness in saying salawat when his holy name is pronounced should read and draw lessons from that event.

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