to comply with the divine order, “O you who believe, invoke blessings upon him and greet him with greetings of peace.”

“Invoke blessings upon him” means: ask Allah to laud him in the Highest Assembly of angels.
“And greet him with peace” means: ask Allah to grant him perfect protection.

During his lifetime that protection covered him against every bodily harm and every moral or spiritual harm; after his death it covers him against intangible harms as well—namely, that his Sharīʿah remain safe from anyone who might abolish or abrogate it. It likewise includes safeguarding his body, for someone might attempt to violate his grave after his passing. This is illustrated by the well-known story of two men who tried to exhume the Prophet’s body, ﷺ.

Two strangers came to Madinah and began tunnelling underground so they could reach the Prophet’s grave and carry off his blessed body. They remained at it for some time. Then one of the Muslim kings was shown in a dream that two men were digging their way to the Prophet’s body to seize it. Deeply alarmed, he immediately set out for Madinah.

After arriving, he wondered how he could identify the two men. He said to the governor of Madinah, “Summon every inhabitant of the city for me,” because in the dream the men had either been described to him or he had seen and recognised them. All the townsfolk were gathered and fed, but the king did not spot the two men. He ordered the people to be summoned again—twice, perhaps three times—yet still he did not see them, though he was certain the dream was true. Finally he asked, “Where are the people of Madinah?” They replied, “No one is left except two foreign visitors in the mosque; they appear to be of no significance.” “Bring them to me,” he said. When they were brought, they proved to be the very two men he had seen in his dream, and he recognised them at once. He then ordered a trench to be dug around the chamber that housed the Prophet’s grave, before it was