Peace be upon him (Islam)

ṣallā Allāhu ʿalay-hi wa-sallam, written in Arabic Calligraphy

Muhammed's name with Salat phrase in Thuluth.

Peace be upon him is a phrase that practising Muslims often say after saying (or hearing) the name of a prophet of Islam. There are three variants of this phrase in Arabic:

• "Peace be upon him": (Arabic: عليه السلام‎ ʿalayhi s-salām - A.S.) - this expression follows after naming any prophet other than Muhammad, or one of the archangels (i.e. Jibreel, Mikaeel, etc.)
• "May Allah honour (pray on) him and grant him peace.": (Arabic: صلى الله عليه وسلم‎ ṣall Allāhu ʿalay-hi wa-sallam - S.A.W., SAAW, or SAAS) - this expression follows specifically after saying the name of the last prophet of Islam, Muhammad.
• "May Allah grant peace and honour to him and his family.": (Arabic: صلى الله عليه وآله‎ ṣall Allahu ʿalayhi wa-’ālih - S.A.W.W.) - this expression follows specifically after saying the name of the last prophet of Islam, Muhammad: this is used by Shi'as due to the Ahl al-Bayt controversy in early Islam which caused the Sunni-Shi'a schism.

In Arabic these salutations are called ṣalawāt, and are abbreviated by some with the use of SAW (in accordance with the Arabic words sallallahu alayhi wasallam) or PBUH (which stands for Peace be upon him in English). However, this practice is considered to be controversial among senior Islamic scholars who disagree with this use on the basis that it demonstrates a lack of respect and laziness.^[1][2][3]

The phrase is also encoded as a ligature at Unicode codepoint U+FDFA^[4] ﷺ.

Qur'anic evidence for asking the blessings on Muhammad

Peace be upon him, written in Arabic

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In the translation of the meanings of the Qur'an in Surah 33 entitled Al-Ahzab (The Confederates), ayah (verse) 56:

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

—Al-Ahzab^[5]

The Islamic scholar, ibn Kathir, titled the section in his tafsir (i.e., explanation of the Qur'an), the Tafsir ibn Kathir, regarding this verse, The Command to say Salah upon the Prophet (Muhammad).

This point is further founded in the saying by Muhammad that,

"The miser is the one in whose presence I am mentioned, then he does not send the Salah upon me."

—Muhammad

This was recorded by Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad.

Hadith evidence for asking the blessing on Muhammad

The evidence for sending Salah on Muhammad is not limited to the Qur'an. It is also found in hadith about Muhammad. Examples include:

Al-Tirmidhi recorded that Abu Hurairah said:

"The Messenger of Allah said, May he be humiliated, the man in whose presence I am mentioned and he does not send Salah upon me; may he be humiliated, the man who sees the month of Ramadan come and go, and he is not forgiven; may he be humiliated, the man whose parents live to old age and they do not cause him to be granted admittance to Paradise."

—Abu Hurairah

Al-Tirmidhi said that this hadith was, "Hasan gharib" (Good but only reported once).

In Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawood, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, and Al-Sunan al-Sughra (Sunan al-Nasa'i), four of the six major Sunni hadith collections, recorded that Abu Hurairah said,

"The Messenger of Allah said: Whoever sends one salah upon me, Allah will send ten upon him."

—Abu Hurayrah

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal reported in his Musnad that the companion of Muhammad, Abu Talha ibn Thabit said:

"One morning the Messenger of Allah was in a cheerful mood and looked happy. They said, 'Oh Messenger of Allah, this morning you are in a cheerful mood and look happy.' He said, Of course, just now someone [an angel] came to me from my Lord [Allah] and said, 'Whoever among your Ummah sends Salah upon you, Allah will record for him ten good deeds and will erase for him ten evil deeds, and will raise his status by ten degrees, and will return his greeting with something similar to it.'"

—Abu Talha ibn Thabit

The isnad (chain of narrators) of this hadith is good.

It was reported by Razin ibn Mu'awiyah in his book Jami al-Usool that Muhammad said:

A supplication remains suspended between heaven and earth and does not ascend any further until a person sends Salah on me. Do not treat me like a spare water container, send Salah upon me at the beginning of your supplication, at the end, and in the middle.

—Muhammad

Commentary regarding abbreviating the Salah on Muhammad

Many of Islamic scholars have instructed Muslims not to abbreviate sending the Salah on Muhammad. Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia said regarding the issue:

"As it is prescribed to send blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in prayer when saying the tashahhud, and it is prescribed when giving khutbahs, saying Du’a and praying for forgiveness, and after the Adhan, and when entering and exiting the mosque, and when mentioning him in other circumstances, so it is more important to do so when writing his name in a book, letter, article and so on. So it is prescribed to write the blessing in full so as to fulfil the command that Allah has given to Muslims, and so that the reader will remember to say the blessing when he reads it. So one should not write the blessing on the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in short form such as writing (S) or (SAWS) etc, or other forms that some writers use, because that is going against the command of Allah in His Book, where He says (interpretation of the meaning):

"Send your Salaah on (ask Allah to bless) him (Muhammad), and (you should) greet (salute) him with the Islamic way of greeting (salutation, i.e. As‑Salaamu ‘Alaykum)"^[5]

And that (writing it in abbreviated form) does not serve that purpose and is devoid of the virtue of writing 'salla Allaahu ‘alayhi wa salaam (May Allah send blessings and peace upon him)' in full. Moreover the reader may not take notice of it and may not understand what is meant by it. It should also be noted that the symbol used for it is regarded as disapproved by the scholars, who warned against it."

Terms used for those other than Muhammad

Ahmad Bayhaqi reports that Abu Hurairah said that Muhammad said:

Send the Salat on Allah's messengers and prophets for Allah sent them as He sent me.

—Muhammad

The scholar of hadith, Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, said this hadith is hasan (good) in his book Saheeh al-Jama'at'. (See hadith number 3782).

When mentioning sahaba (the companions of Muhammad), radhi Allahu anhu (for males) and radhi Allahu anha (for females) are used by Sunnis; they mean may God be pleased with him or her respectively. The phrase is sometimes also used after mentioning other names including that of Jesus and Moses, but the term عليه سلام aleyhi salaam, "On him be peace" is more common. See for example the letter from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, to George W. Bush: "Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ (PBUH), the great Messenger of God, Feel obliged to respect human rights ..."

The term was also used in the New Testament when Jesus said "Peace [be] unto you", in John 20:21, when entering between a group of people.

See also

• Islamic honorifics
• Subhanahu wa ta'ala
• Islamic view of Muhammad
• Durood
• Dala'il al-Khayrat
• Madih nabawi
• Mawlid
• Na'at
• Honorifics for the dead in Judaism (Peace be upon him/her)
• Jehovah

References

1. ^ From Al-Fayrooza-abaadee's book As-Salaatu wal-Bushr, as quoted in Mu'jam Al-Manaahee Al-Laf-thiyyah (p.351)
2. ^ the Musnad of Imaam Ahmad (#5088, 9/105)
3. ^ from a handwritten answer provided by the shaykh Wasee Allaah 'Abbaas, file no. AAWA004, dated 1423/6/24
4. ^ "Arabic Presentation Forms-A" (PDF). The Unicode Standard, Version 5.2. Mountain View, Ca.: Unicode, Inc.. 2009-10-01. http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/Unicode-3.1/U31-FB50.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-09. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Quran 33:56 ^{(Translated by Shakir)}