Salawat - Salutations and Divine Blessings on the Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

Dedicated to my late father, Abdul Hameed, who has passed away this last Thursday, February 10th, 2022 (Rajab 9, 1443). Allah has called His servant back to Him; “Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.” May he be dressed in the lights of Muhammad ﷺ. “Allah and His angels send blessings on the Prophet ﷺ: O ye that believe! Send ye blessings on him ﷺ, and salute him ﷺ with all respect.“ “When Muhammad ﷺ sends Salawat upon the believers, it indicates his prayer for their welfare, blessing and salvation.“ To send blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ is to receive blessings from him ﷺ. It is the process of manifestation of blessings and purification of the soul through connecting our hearts with his ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ said “Verily, I have many names. I am the Effacer (al-Mahi) through whom God effaces unbelief, I am the Gatherer (al-Hashir) at whose feet the people will be gathered, and I am the Last Prophet (al-Akhir) after whom there are no more.“ It is said that on the Day of Judgement, on the Throne of God itself will God seat Muhammad ﷺ, alluded to in the Qur’anic verse “It may be that thy Lord will raise thee to a praised estate” (17:79). Thus he rises to the reality of the Ahmad, his highest manifestation. The Throne of God, as explained by the metaphysicians of the Path, is the True Kaaba. It is the seat of consciousness. It is the Heart, so for Muhammad ﷺ to be seated upon the Throne means that his essential reality has existential significance with respect to the reality of our own Being. He ﷺ is seated on our own Hearts. His ﷺ essence is stamped on our Hearts and on creation itself. I asked: “O Messenger of Allah, when were you [first] a Prophet?“ He ﷺ replied: “When Allah created the earth ‘Then turned He to the Heaven and fashioned it as seven Heavens’ [2:29], and created the Throne. He wrote on the leg of the Throne: “Muhammad the Messenger of Allah is the Seal of Prophets“ . Then Allah created the Garden in which He made Adam and Hawwa’ dwell, and He wrote my name on the gates, its tree-leaves, its domes and tents, at a time when Adam was still between the spirit and the body...“ And this reality is mentioned by Imam ’Ali كرم الله وجهه when he says “the human being is a small universe, and the universe is a large human being“ and “you think you are a small entity [microcosm], but within you is enfolded the entire Universe [macrocosm]“ The understanding is that this pertains to the Universal Intellect, the First Being (al-awal al-aql) created by God with His ’two hands’, which are represented in the male Principle of Power and the female Principle of Knowledge. The Insan al-Kamil is the Universe awakened through the modality of the self from which emerges the Perfected Man. This reality is epitomized in the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ, described as The Book, contains this Universal Knowledge, and thus possesses the qualities of perfect clarity and conduct, and the perfect performance of good deeds. Such a being is one who necessarily is a Universal Teacher, a World Teacher, and thus he ﷺ was known as the one who trains and leads all to Enlightenment, both human and heavenly beings, and guides to safety and salvation, for he ﷺ is also known as al-Shafi (the Intercessor). Standing without equal as the world-honored one, as the Unexcelled Worthy, Divine Love permeates and illuminates his ﷺ Being. The spiritual path is one that is rooted in Tradition, and Tradition is that which connects the holy people down through the Adamic generations of material existence back to that original flame of Divine Light. This flame of Divine Light is the essence of the Muhammadan light. It is a golden flame that burns with the ecstasy of Divine Love. Ubai bin Ka’ab said, “Then I said to him, ’Oh Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I supplicate often, so how much of my supplication should I devote to you?’ The Prophet ﷺ replied, ’as you desire’. I asked, ‘a quarter of it?’ He said ‘as you desire, but if you were to increase upon this, it would be better for you.’ I asked, ‘half of it?’ He said, ‘as you desire, but if you were to increase upon this, it would be better for you.’ I asked, ‘two-thirds of it?’ He said again, ‘as you desire, but if you were to increase upon this, it would be better for you.’ Finally I asked, ‘and if I dedicate my supplication in its entirety to you?’ He said, ‘then your needs will be satisfied, and your sins forgiven.’ When you regard your Heart as Holy, as the sanctified place of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, then you will regard it with respect; and thus is born self-respect. Now there is obligation and duty towards it, towards the Holy Prophet ﷺ; and thus there is born confidence and boundaries. The salawat is an invitation to the Holy Prophet ﷺ to enter your Heart thereby sanctifying it with his worship of Allah. It is thus a type of consecratory act that has initiatic significance. It is an initiation onto the path of metaphysics and into the inner circles of the Prophetic Tradition.