Durood Ibrahim and Salawat on the Prophet: Words, Meaning and Virtues

Salawat, called durood or durood sharif in Urdu and Persian, means asking Allah to bless and honour the Prophet Muhammad. The command comes in Quran 33:56: Allah and His angels send blessings on the Prophet, and believers are told to ask blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation. The verse joins two acts, blessing (salat) and greeting with peace (salam), which is why the short phrase sallallahu alayhi wa sallam contains both. The same verb describes Allah and His angels blessing the believers in Quran 33:43, and the Quran greets earlier prophets with peace too, as with Ibrahim in Quran 37:109.

The Companions already knew how to greet the Prophet with peace, because the tashahhud of prayer includes As-salamu 'alayka ayyuhan-Nabiyyu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh (Sahih al-Bukhari 831). What they asked was how to send salat on him. His answer is the wording now called Durood Ibrahim, because it asks Allah to bless Muhammad and his family as He blessed Ibrahim and his family.

Sources: [1] [3] [5]

The best-known wording is the one Ka'b ibn Ujrah offered as a gift to Abdur-Rahman ibn Abi Layla, recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari 3370. The transliteration below follows the Arabic on that page; learn it phrase by phrase, with its meaning, from a teacher or a reliable recording.

Ka'b's report in Sahih al-Bukhari 6357 is slightly shorter, reading kama sallayta 'ala ali Ibrahim and kama barakta 'ala ali Ibrahim, so it mentions the family of Ibrahim without naming him. Both wordings are in Sahih al-Bukhari; learn either exactly as it appears on its page. The closing words, innaka Hamidun Majid, echo Quran 11:73, where the angels' greeting to the household of Ibrahim ends with the same two names of Allah.

• Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa 'ala ali Muhammad, kama sallayta 'ala Ibrahima wa 'ala ali Ibrahim, innaka Hamidun Majid. — O Allah, send blessings on Muhammad and on the family of Muhammad, as You sent blessings on Ibrahim and on the family of Ibrahim; You are indeed Praiseworthy, Glorious.
• Allahumma barik 'ala Muhammadin wa 'ala ali Muhammad, kama barakta 'ala Ibrahima wa 'ala ali Ibrahim, innaka Hamidun Majid. — O Allah, bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You blessed Ibrahim and the family of Ibrahim; You are indeed Praiseworthy, Glorious (Sahih al-Bukhari 3370).
• Word guide: salli, send blessings; barik, grant barakah, lasting goodness and increase; al, family or household; Hamid, the Praiseworthy; Majid, the Glorious.

Sources: [4] [5] [2]

Several Companions reported the Prophet's answer, and their wordings differ slightly. Every form in the table is in Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim, the two collections whose reports Sunnah.com shows without a separate grade line, so any of them may be learned; the Arabic and English of each are on the linked page.

A shorter variant that many readers ask about is Abu Humayd's report in Sahih al-Bukhari 3369, which names the Prophet's wives and descendants in place of 'the family of Muhammad'. For the briefest form in prayer, IslamWeb notes that jurists who make the salawat obligatory there accept Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad as the minimum that fulfils it.

Sources: [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [17]

The best-known virtue is in Sahih Muslim 408: whoever sends one blessing on the Prophet, Allah sends ten blessings on him. Sunan an-Nasa'i 1297, graded Sahih (Darussalam), adds that ten sins are removed and the person is raised ten degrees.

Other reports encourage making salawat a habit and warn against neglecting it. Sunnah.com shows no grade line for Jami at-Tirmidhi 3546, on the miser, though at-Tirmidhi's own comment in the Arabic calls it hasan sahih gharib; each grading below is exactly as displayed.

• One blessing brings ten from Allah — Sahih Muslim 408.
• Ten blessings, ten sins removed and ten degrees raised — Sunan an-Nasa'i 1297; Sahih (Darussalam).
• Angels travel the earth conveying to him the salam of his community — Sunan an-Nasa'i 1282; Sahih (Darussalam).
• The miser is the one before whom the Prophet is mentioned and who does not send salawat on him — Jami at-Tirmidhi 3546; no grade line shown.
• The person closest to him on the Day of Resurrection is the one who sent the most salawat on him — Jami at-Tirmidhi 484; Hasan (Darussalam).

Sources: [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

Friday is singled out. In Sunan Abi Dawud 1047, graded Sahih (Al-Albani), the Prophet described Friday as among the best of days and said to invoke more blessings on him that day, for those blessings are presented to him. The report sets no number, and our Jummah guide covers the other practices of the day.

After the call to prayer, Sahih Muslim 384 teaches a sequence: repeat what the muadhdhin says, send salawat on the Prophet, then ask Allah to grant him al-wasilah, a rank in Paradise, and whoever asks it for him is assured of his intercession. Supplication also begins well with praise and salawat: in Sunan Abi Dawud 1481, graded Sahih (Al-Albani), the Prophet said a man who made dua without praising Allah or sending salawat had hurried, and taught beginning with praise of Allah, then salawat, then asking for whatever one wishes.

Salawat also has a set place after the second takbir of the funeral prayer, as our Janazah guide explains, and Jami at-Tirmidhi 3546 connects it with hearing the Prophet's name.

Sources: [14] [15] [16] [12]

Durood Ibrahim is recited in the final sitting of prayer, after the tashahhud and before the closing salam. When the Prophet taught the wording in Sahih Muslim 405 he ended with 'and the salam is as you know', linking it to the greeting of the tashahhud. Darul Iftaa Jordan, answering in the Shafi'i school, describes it as a pillar of prayer in the final tashahhud and a Sunnah in the first.

All four schools include it in the final sitting; they differ on whether a prayer that omits it remains valid. IslamWeb summarises the Shafi'i and Hanbali view that it is obligatory there and the Hanafi and Maliki view that it is recommended. Follow your own school and teacher on what to do if it is missed.

Sources: [8] [19] [17] [18] [20]

Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam means 'may Allah bless him and grant him peace', the short salawat said or written after the Prophet's name. It joins the two acts in Quran 33:56, blessing and peace; the English 'peace be upon him' conveys only the second.

Many writers abbreviate it as SAW, SAWS or PBUH. A Shafi'i answer on IslamQA.org cites Imam an-Nawawi recommending that it be written in full, al-Sakhawi describing abbreviation as better avoided and al-Iraqi as disliked, and concludes that writing it in full is advisable because it removes ambiguity. A reader who meets an abbreviation can still say the full phrase.

Sources: [1] [21]

No. Durood Taj, Durood Tanjeena (also spelt Tunajjina) and similar devotional compositions are not reports from the Prophet, and their wordings are not found in the major hadith collections. A Darul Iftaa answer on IslamQA.org, approved by Mufti Ebrahim Desai, says that the best forms of salawat are those the Prophet himself taught, that the virtues attached to these two compositions are not authentic, and that the specific rewards in the hadith are tied to the hadith wordings.

Scholars differ about some of their phrases. Darul Uloom Deoband's fatwa service objects to certain words in Durood Taj and advises reciting the hadith wordings instead, while the Darul Iftaa answer notes that another fatwa collection reads the disputed words in an acceptable sense. Many sincere Muslims grew up reciting these compositions; the gentle point is that the forms taught by the Prophet, such as Durood Ibrahim, are the ones transmitted in the hadith.

Sources: [22] [23]

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