درود شریف کی اہمیت

It is narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Disgraced be the man before whom my name is mentioned and he does not send blessings (durood) upon me. Disgraced be the man who finds the (whole) month of Ramadan and yet is unable to have his sins forgiven (that is, the blessed month of Ramadan passes him by in heedlessness and he does not, through repentance and seeking forgiveness, secure his own pardon). And disgraced be the man in whose presence his parents, or one of them, reach old age, and yet he does not enter Paradise (by serving them).”

In this hadith, the common grave fault of the three kinds of people for whom disgrace, humiliation and degradation are invoked is this: that Allah provided them with the finest opportunities to obtain His special favour, mercy and forgiveness, yet they did not even wish to benefit from Allah’s mercy and forgiveness and instead chose deprivation for themselves. Surely only such wretched people deserve to have such a prayer made against them.

First is mentioned the man who, when the Prophet ﷺ was mentioned, did not send blessings and salutations upon him. In truth, just as the believers have been commanded, with due care, to recite durood — and its boundless benefits and rewards have been described — so too are the warnings against not reciting durood very severe. Against such a person there is the prayer of destruction, of forgetting the way to Paradise, and of entering Hell, and that such a person is a wrongdoer and miserly.

The second man is the one who, in his lifetime, found the mercy-filled month of Ramadan, yet did not make use of that month’s blessed hours to arrange for his own forgiveness. This is the blessed month in which the gates of Paradise and mercy are opened, the gates of Hell are shut, and the devils are chained and restrained; likewise, in this blessed month the Holy Qur’an was revealed, and in it there is a night that is better than a thousand months. For all these important reasons this month has immense importance and merit, and that is why the sacred hadith warns the person who finds this month yet does not have his forgiveness secured that he is utterly disgraced and degraded.

The third person is the one who finds his parents, or one of them, in old age, and does not — through their service and obedience — earn Paradise for himself. After Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, the beings most deserving of obedience and most worthy of respect and service in all the earthly and heavenly creation are one’s parents, whose honour, respect and obedience Allah has mentioned in the Holy Qur’an alongside His own worship: “And your Lord has clearly commanded that you worship none but Him, and be good to your parents. If either or both of them reach old age in your presence, do not even say ‘uff’ to them, nor rebuke them, but speak to them with respect and honour, and lower for them, out of humility and love, the wing of submission, and keep praying: ‘O my Lord, have mercy on them just as they nurtured me when I was little.’” (Bani Isra’il, 23–24).