17- What is Salawat and what is it actually used for ?
In order to study what Salawat is,
and what it is used for,
and whether the usage of salawat,
in various instances by us,is appropriate or not,
for example sending salawat for the health of Imam Zaman (a.s),
or sending Salawat, for other instances which have become common,
or will become common in the future,
for this reason, our best reference as usual, is the word of God,
so we can be aware of the meaning,significance,necessity of Salawat.
What act is Salawat?
---------------------------
Salawat is an act that God and the angels,do for all the believers,
هُوَ الَّذِی یصَلِّی **عَلَیكُمْ** وَ مَلَائِكَتُهُ - احزاب43
like that of revelation,induction,inspiration,sending down angels, and other matters.
Which all of these, separately, are other acts of God.
According to the Quranic verse above,
every believer is included in God's and the angels salawat,
whether me, you and the prophet (pbuh)
What is Salawat for?
-----------------------------------
The reason for the attachment of salawat on the believers,
from God and the angels,
is for existing from darkness towards light,
Which is apparent from the following verse:
لِیخْرِجَكُم مِّنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ - احزاب43
Hence Salawat means " to be under God's guidance."
Guidance in the Quran is indicated by the word " light" in the Quran,
And the reason for descending the Quran and its verses.
كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَیكَ لِتُخْرِجَ النَّاسَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ **إِلَى النُّورِ** - ابراهیم1
ینَزِّلُ عَلَىٰ عَبْدِهِ آیاتٍ بَینَاتٍ لِّیخْرِجَكُم مِّنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ **إِلَى النُّورِ** - حدید9
What is Darkness?
Any kind of disbelief is darkness.
What is light?
Any guidance from God is light
This light can contain faith,
and can contain Quran and the criterion,
and the verse related to the prophet (pbuh) is the best example for it,
which we shall indicate in the following text.
The prophet(pbuh) before be-esat
According to his own faith would go to cave of hira,
but when God communicated with him,
He told him, you neither knew what "book" is
neither knew what "faith" is
but we have placed it in a form of a "light"
and with that we guide any of our servants with it.
مَا كُنتَ تَدْرِی مَا الْكِتَابُ وَلَا الْإِیمَانُ
وَلَٰكِن جَعَلْنَاهُ **نُورًا** نَّهْدِی بِهِ مَن نَّشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِنَا - شوری52
Hence, guidance and all of the matters related to it,
is sent in a form of light,
and if God does not place this light for someone,
no other factor can help him reach divine guidance.
وَمَن لَّمْ یجْعَلِ اللَّهُ لَهُ نُورًا فَمَا لَهُ مِن نُّورٍ - نور40
Also, in the beginning of the verse above,
God has introduced the Quran as a kind of " spirit " from his command,
because he says, we have revealed a spirit from our commands to you.
كَذَٰلِكَ أَوْحَینَا إِلَیكَ **رُوحًا** مِّنْ أَمْرِنَا - شوری52
And this has its own detailed discussion.
.
Now that we know what is salawat, and what is its usage,
it is necessary to explain the stages of God's guidance.
Meaning what is done thru Salawat.
God's guidance is done by, bestowing the "opening of the mind"
that if he finds someone worthy of being a muslim,he gives it to him.
فَمَن یرِدِ اللَّهُ أَن یهْدِیهُ یشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ - انعام125
And who ever receives the " opening of the mind "
is placed on the initial light from his Lord,
أَفَمَن شَرَحَ اللَّهُ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ **فَهُوَ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ مِّن رَّبِّهِ** - زمر22
and in the day of judgement, the light of believers is on his/her opposite and right side,
یوْمَ تَرَى الْمُؤْمِنِینَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ یسْعَىٰ نُورُهُم بَینَ أَیدِیهِمْ وَبِأَیمَانِهِم - حدید12
and they request God to complete their light,
نُورُهُمْ یسْعَىٰ بَینَ أَیدِیهِمْ وَبِأَیمَانِهِمْ یقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا أَتْمِمْ لَنَا نُورَنَا - تحریم8
and in heaven will have rewards and extra light.
لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ وَنُورُهُمْ - حدید19
God, as a result of belief/faith and taqwa(God consciousness), places light for a believer,
so that his/her actions in life would be based on belief and taqwa.
یجْعَل لَّكُمْ نُورًا تَمْشُونَ بِهِ - حدید28
.
Matters that are done by Salawat:
***Opening of the mind, by God, for entering Islam,***
Which some of it is explained above.
***Reviving the human to faith, and placing light of guidance for him/her***
before a person becomes muslim, he/she is dead.
Islam is a reviver.
إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا یحْییكُمْ – انفال24
If God accepts anyone's Islam,
He/she is revived and places light for them.
أَوَمَن كَانَ مَیتًا فَأَحْیینَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا - انعام122
**Sending angels on the believers**
إِنَّ الَّذِینَ قَالُوا رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ ثُمَّ اسْتَقَامُوا تَتَنَزَّلُ عَلَیهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ - فصلت30
**registering faith/belief in the intellect of the believers and sending spirits for assisting them**
أُولَٰئِكَ كَتَبَ فِی قُلُوبِهِمُ الْإِیمَانَ وَأَیدَهُم بِرُوحٍ مِّنْهُ - مجادله22
**Forgiveness of God towards most of our mistakes**
وَمَا أَصَابَكُم مِّن مُّصِیبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَیدِیكُمْ وَیعْفُو عَن كَثِیرٍ - شوری30
**Being Included in God's bounty and mercy for not following Satan**
وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَیكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَاتَّبَعْتُمُ الشَّیطَانَ إِلَّا قَلِیلًا - نساء83
And if it were not of his bounty and mercy,
every one would have followed Satan, except a few.
وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَیكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُ مَا زَكَىٰ مِنكُم مِّنْ أَحَدٍ أَبَدًا - نور21
Hence if all this assistance and help from God was not available,
according to Allah, nobody would have been **spiritually cleansed**
leave alone stages after that.
.
The best light is the Quran, which is the direct speech of God,
and is the true explanation of faith/belief towards Allah,
and the guide towards the straight path.
For this reason, anyone, whether the prophet, whether you or me,
are in need of God's salawat,
The reason being, without it, existing from darkness to light, does not happen for us.
Hence, salawat, has nothing got to do with outward health,
and has nothing got to do with, happenings or delivering or fulfilling us, our wishes.
Also what we have heard a lot , which is sending Salawat for the health of the Imam Zaman (a.s),
which is absolutely outside the definition of Salawat.
Even Imam Zaman (a.s) and the prophet (pbuh) are included in the salawat of God,
and what they receive, as a guidance (light),
is taught according to the effort, and talent of the people.
Also salwat has nothing to do with our spiritual health,
because if it was,despite sending Salawat from God,
and a number of , say for an example 1000 billion angels,
all of us should have been in the best state of belief/faith and realization of God.
Then why, despite, this great act upon us, we are still, what we were?
The reason is God's acts for us, are meant to be the laws, regulated for our guidance,
and anyone, according to their " sincere act " makes use of it.
Before in the discussion of Dua, we have talked about the conditions of
" Mokhsleseen Lahud Deen " (Those Sincere in Religion),
That God only accepts sincere acts.
A messenger or Imam or prophet, like any person,
requires God's consistent guidance, himself,
But because of their higher performance in comparison to others,
receive more degrees of Salawat from God.
Hence all of us, as long as we are believers,
are under God and angels Salawat.
This is general mercy upon all believers,
and nobody is exceptional in this,
whether me, you or the prophet (pbuh).
The difference between the prophet (pbuh) in comparison to the rest, and even all the Imams (a.s)
is in this, that God has asked the believers,
by requesting Salawat from God, for the prophet,
to be verbally in participation of it,
by including ourselves, pararell and in accordance to this divine command,
which nevertheless is being implemented,
.
Similar to bearing witness to the oneness of God and the prophetic mission of the messenger (pbuh),
that too in Salah,
Which obviously, those who perform Salah,
definitely believes these two matters,
otherwise has not prayed.
But why do we continue to bear witness to this matter,
daily, in each Salat, infront of God?
Because in Salat, after expressing and realizing, the decisions of God for creation of existence,
meaning Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim,
Which includes the first stage till eternity,
and points out to the acts and moment to moment actions of God,
for managing and maintaining of the entire existence,
meaning "Alhamdullilah Rab al alameen - الحمد لله رب العالمین ",
and arriving at many other numerous matters in Salat,
but perforce,and for the content not to be too long,
just to be very brief and a simple summary of the two lines mentioned above,
eventually, it comes to my turn, who is the performer of Salat, and expressor of the content,
that if in Salat, we are unable to actually witness the reality of the divine names,
and its definitions, and the acts of God,
at least, we would reach the least stage, which is bearing witness to it verbally.
It is here ,we bear witness,
towards the truth of all of the matters,
which is God, and his oneness.
Over here we,upon ourselves,
are in a position of a witness and witnessed,
in the presence of God.
Hence God is our **شاهد-Shahed- Witness** in Salat,
and we are in the position of the **مشهود - mashood- Witnessed ** by God
and the place we perform our Salat is **مشهد- Mashhad- place of being witnessed **
and since we use the term **اشهد- Ashhad- I bear witness **
apart from the matters we mentioned above,
We ourselves become a ** Witness-Shahed ** to what we say,
and our bearing witness, becomes our own **Witnessed-Mashood**
and our mind, meaning brain, in which expression takes form, becomes ** the place for being witnessed-Mashhad**.
Another example in this matter is where God says,
The messenger, believed whatever that came from God to him.
Obviously the belief of the messenger (pbuh) to the speech of God is a very evident,
and does not need God's declaration,
but this speech of God, is, God being "شاهد- A witness- Shahed " on the amount of belief/faith of the prophet (pbuh)
The Salawat, which we request for the prophet (pbuh),
according to the direct command of God, is for him personally,
meaning apart from the salawat God and angels send on us and him,
God has asked the believers to request the act of salawat along with Salam, for the prophet (pbuh).
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ یصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِی
یا أَیهَا الَّذِینَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَیهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِیمًا - احزاب56
Hence currently, one and a half billion muslims,
also request God the act of salawat on the prophet (pbuh),
and according to the explanation given above,
when we express this request with our tongue,
according to the amount of faith I have,
it is counted as a level of witnessing, along with the act of salawat.
In addition according to Imam Jafar Sadiq (a.s),
the phrase Ale Mohammad in the salawat text,
includes all the believers who are his true followers.
A a result, by sending Salawat on the prophet (pbuh) and expressing the phrase, Ale Mohammad,
we have also included ourselves in it.
Meaning from the point of receiving salawat,
there is no difference between us and the messenger of God,
As we have told God ;
Oh God send salawat upon our prophet and all of us.
This is the meaning of salawat,
and the matters that are done by Salawat.
*Note: Salawat is the plural form of "Salat", and from the root of "S-L-W",meaning, salutation,
greeting, and mercy.