/0L2 Chapter: The Command to Invoke Blessings upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ

Allah the Exalted says, “Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who believe, invoke blessings upon him and greetings of peace.”

1397 – ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (may Allah be pleased with them) reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “Whoever invokes blessings upon me once, Allah will send blessings upon him ten times.” Narrated by Muslim.

[Commentary]

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—places here, in his book Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn, the chapter entitled “The Command to Invoke Blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ.” A command may sometimes indicate obligation and at other times mere recommendation. When it is obligatory, a person who neglects it is sinful, disobedient, and liable to punishment. When it is recommended, the person who performs the act is rewarded, but if he omits it he incurs no sin.

Thus the obligatory and the recommended share the fact that both earn reward for whoever performs them, yet the reward for the obligatory is greater and more abundant. The Prophet ﷺ relates in a sacred hadith that Allah the Exalted said, “My servant does not draw nearer to Me with anything more beloved to Me than that which I have made obligatory upon him.”

Where they differ is that the one who abandons an obligatory act is sinful, disobedient to Allah, and deserving of punishment, whereas the one who leaves a recommended act is not sinful—though he has missed a benefit. And the command