The virtue of sending salutations on the Prophet ﷺ

Durood means asking Allah to send blessings and peace on the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Allah Himself sends blessings on the Prophet ﷺ, and so do the angels, and Allah has told believers to do the same. Even in prayer, which is only for Allah, we still end it by sending durood on the Prophet ﷺ.

Before the Prophet ﷺ, the world was filled with the worship of idols, stars, fire, wealth and the self. Through him the worship of Allah was established on earth, and the takbir has echoed in the world ever since, a state that will continue until the Day of Judgment. Allah Almighty joined obedience, love and pleasure toward His Messenger to obedience, love and pleasure toward Himself; disobedience and hatred of the Prophet are counted as disobedience and hatred of Allah. Allah placed the Prophet's name alongside His own, and commanded that he be remembered alongside Himself. Allah Himself sends blessings and peace upon the Prophet, as do all the angels, and believers have been commanded to do the same. Even in prayer, which belongs to Allah alone, durood upon the Prophet is included at its close; in the funeral prayer, the shahadah is recited at the first takbir and durood at the second.

The source frames durood as more than an act of etiquette: it traces the Prophet's ﷺ role in ending the pre-Islamic worship of idols, stars, fire, wealth and self, and grounds the command to remember him in the principle that Allah joined obedience, love and pleasure toward the Messenger to obedience, love and pleasure toward Himself, so that disobedience and hatred of the one is treated as disobedience and hatred of the other. Allah placed the Prophet's name alongside His own and commanded his remembrance alongside His own remembrance. Allah Himself, and all the angels, send blessings and peace (salah wa salam) upon the Prophet, and believers are commanded to the same. Durood is retained even within salah, an act otherwise exclusively directed to Allah, closing it at the tashahhud, and structures the funeral prayer too, where the shahadah is read at the first takbir and durood at the second.