Important Points Concerning the Salat upon the Prophet of the Umma ﷺ I record here several benefits related to invoking blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ, because most people are unaware of them. Benefit One. Scholars have long debated the rationale behind the comparison contained in the words: “just as You bestowed blessings …,” even though it is a basic rule of Arabic eloquence that the entity being compared (the mushabbah) is normally inferior to the entity to which it is compared (the mushabbah bih). Yet in the present formula the situation is reversed, for Muhammad ﷺ by himself is superior to the family of Ibrahim—including Ibrahim himself—let alone when “the family of Muhammad” is also attached to him. Logically, therefore, the prayer we request for him should surpass every prayer that has ever been granted or will ever be granted. The scholars have offered many answers—about ten altogether—collected first by Ibn al-Qayyim in Jalaʾ al-Afham (pp. 186–198) and later by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (11:134–136). Some of these explanations are weaker than others, with only one emerging as the strongest and most valid. Ibn al-Qayyim preferred it, following the judgment of his teacher in al-Fatawa (1:165). That view states: The family of Ibrahim includes prophets, whereas no such prophets exist within the family of Muhammad. Consequently, when we ask that the Prophet ﷺ and his family receive a salat equal to that granted to Ibrahim and his family—within whom are prophets—the family of Muhammad obtains from that prayer whatever befits them, for they do not reach the ranks of the prophets. The additional merit that belongs to those prophets, among them Ibrahim, is then allotted to Muhammad ﷺ, giving him an excellence that no one else attains. Ibn al-Qayyim (p. 197) comments: “This is superior to all the previous explanations—and better still is to say that Muhammad ﷺ himself is one of the family of Ibrahim; indeed, he is the best of the family of Ibrahim.” He cites the report of ʿAli ibn Abi Talha from Ibn ʿAbbas regarding the verse, “Indeed Allah chose Adam, Noah, the family of Ibrahim, and the family of ʿImran above all people” (Q 3:33). Ibn ʿAbbas said: “Muhammad is among the family of Ibrahim.” This is explicit: if other prophets descended from Ibrahim are counted among his family, then the inclusion of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is even more fitting. Accordingly, our phrase “just as You bestowed blessings upon the family of Ibrahim” already covers blessings upon him as well as upon all the prophets from Ibrahim’s progeny. Thereafter Allah commanded us to invoke blessings upon him and upon his own family in particular, in proportion to the blessings we invoke upon him together with the broader family of Ibrahim—of which he himself is a member—and his family thereby receives