Al-Salawat Verse: Difference between revisions

'''The ''salawāt'' verse''' is the fifty-sixth verse of [[Sura al-Ahzab]] (Quran 33), which mentions that God and the angels bless the [[Prophet (s)]] and enjoins the believers to ask God to confer blessing upon him. Many Shiites recite [[salawat]] (a prayer for blessing the Prophet) upon hearing this verse. Reciting this verse is [[recommended]] after [[maghrib prayer]]s.  

According to [[Allama Tabatabai]] in ''[[al-Mizan]]'', reciting salawat is in fact following God and the angels. In his ''Payam-i Qurʾan'' and based on a number of [[hadith]]s from [[Sunni]] sources, Ayatollah [[Makarim Shirazi]] mentions that including the family of the Prophet (s) in salawat is required.  

In al-Shaykh al-Tusi’s ''Misbah al-mutahajjid'', Reciting this verse has been recommended after maghrib prayers and after saying the tasbih of Lady Fatima (a).  

In Shiite religious culture of some regions such as Iran, this verse is recited loudly by one person after congregational prayers and the participants recite salawat three times.  

Based on a number of hadiths mentioned in Shiite and Sunni sources, Allama Tabatabai states that the correct form of salawat is to ask God to bless the Prophet (s) and his family. He also emphasizes that the believers, by saying salawat, in fact follow God and the angels in their blessing the Prophet (s). According to him, this verse is also an emphasis on the warning in the subsequent verse that those who hurt God and His apostle are cursed in this world and the hereafter.  

In his ''Payam-i Quran'', Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi mentions that, according to Shiite and Sunni hadiths, Muslims are to ask God to bless the family of the Prophet (s) together with the Prophet (s). Sunni hadiths in this regard can be found in such sources as ''Sahih Bukhari'', ''Sahih Muslim'', ''Tafsi Durr al-manthur'', and ''Tafsir al-Tabari''.  

According to a hadith quoted in al-Tabrisi’s ''Majmaʿ al-bayan'', Imam al-Sadiq (a) said, “He who asks God to bless the Prophet (s), angels will ask God to bless him, they will erase ten of his sins, and write for him ten good deeds.”

According to Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, the salawat verse indicates that saying salawat upon the Prophet (s) is obligatory at least once in one’s life. Moreover, Shaykh Mansur Ali Nasif, a Sunni scholar and author of the book ''al-Taj al-jamiʿ li l-usul'', is reported to have stated that scholars unanimously agree that this verse indicates, in its manifest meaning, that saying salawat upon the Prophet (s) is obligatory.