Islamic honorifics

"Peace be upon him" redirects here. For the Jewish honorific, see Honorifics for the dead in Judaism § Peace be upon him/her.

Islam uses a number of conventionally complimentary phrases praising Allah (e.g., ), or wishing good things upon Muhammad or other prophets and chosen figures of God (e.g., ). These phrases are encompassed by a number of terms: Prayers upon Muhammad may be referred to simply as Arabic: صَلَوات, romanized: ṣalawāt, "prayers", Persian: درود, romanized: dorud, "greetings", or Urdu: درود, romanized: durūd.

Applied to God

After mentioning one of the names of God, such as Allah, an expression of worship is used as opposed to the phrases of supplication used for regular individuals. These include:

Arabic Transliteration	Meaning	Abbreviation
	Glorified and Exalted	(swt), (s.w.t.)
	Blessed and Exalted
	Prestigious and Majestic	(azwj), (a.z.w.j.)

Applied to Muhammad and his family

("blessings of God and peace be upon him") written in Arabic

"Blessings of God be upon him and his progeny" in Arabic.

Arabic Transliteration Meaning	Usage	Abbreviation
style="text-align: center;"	rowspan="3" |This expression follows after naming prophets and messengers in Islam, companions in Sunni Islam and Imams in Shia Islam	(as), (a.s.)
Peace be upon him
style="text-align: center;"	rowspan="3" |This expression follows after naming prophets and messengers, companions in Sunni Islam, Imams in Shia Islam.	(asws), (a.s.w.s.), (pbbuh), (p.b.b.u.h.)
Blessings and peace be upon him
style="text-align: center;"	rowspan="3" |This expression follows after naming Imams in Shia Islam or angels. The feminine version () is commonly used for historical Islamic women (e.g. Fatimah, Khadijah, Maryam, Asiya, Sarah, Eve, etc.).	(sa), (s.a.)
Peace of God be upon him
style="text-align: center;"	rowspan="3" |This expression follows specifically after uttering the name of Muhammad, although "peace be upon him" may be used instead. .	(saw), (s.a.w.), (sa), (s.a.), (sm)
Blessings of God be upon him as well as peace
style="text-align: center;"	rowspan="3" |This expression follows specifically after uttering the name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is used by all Muslims, .	(saww), (s.a.w.w.), (saws), (s.a.w.s.), (saw), (s.a.w.), (sa), (s.a.), (pbuh), (p.b.u.h)
Blessings of God be upon him and his progeny and grant him peace
style="text-align: center;"	rowspan="3" |This expression follows specifically after uttering the name of Muhammad. It is more commonly used by Shia Muslims.	(sawa), (s.a.w.a.), (saww), (s.a.w.w.), (sa), (s.a.)
Blessings of God be upon him and his progeny
style="text-align: center;"	rowspan="3" |This expression is used when mentioning historic and contemporary Muslims.	(ra), (r.a.), (r.h)(rah), (r.a.h.), (raa), (r.a.a.)
God have mercy on him
style="text-align: center;"	rowspan="3" |This expression is used when mentioning the companions of Muhammad but sometimes used with other religious persons, the feminine version .	(ra), (r.a.)
God be pleased with him

In the above, Arabic: عليه, romanized: ʿalayhi "upon him" may be replaced by Arabic: عليه وعلى آله, romanized: ʿalayhi wa-ʿalā 'ālihi "upon him and upon his family."

Usually, or "blessings" is used exclusively for Muhammad to distinguish between him and other prophets (and Imams in Shia Islam), but theoretically, it is used for all prophets equally.

Scriptural and hadith basis for prayers upon Muhammad

Qur'ān

Verse 33:56 in Arabic.

The honorifics for Muhammad are enjoined by Surat al-Ahzab:

"Surely Allah (God) and His angels bless the Prophet; O you who believe! Send blessings on him and salute him with a (becoming) salutation."^{[Quran 33:56 (Translated by Shakir)]}

Hadith

Al-Tirmidhi recorded that Abu Hurairah said, "The Messenger of Allah said, 'May he be humiliated, the man in whose presence I am mentioned and he does not send Salaam upon me; may he be humiliated, the man who sees the month of Ramadan come and go, and he is not forgiven; may he be humiliated, the man whose parents live to old age and they do not cause him to be granted admittance to Paradise.'" Al-Tirmidhi said that this hadith was , "good but only reported once".

In , , and , four of the six major hadith collections recorded that Abu Hurairah said, "The Messenger of Allah said: 'Whoever sends one Salaam upon me, Allah will send ten upon him.'"

Ahmad ibn Hanbal reported in his that the Companion of Muhammad, Abu Talha ibn Thabit, said:

One morning the Messenger of Allah was in a cheerful mood and looked happy. They said, "O Messenger of Allah, this morning you are in a cheerful mood and look happy." He said, "Of course, just now someone [an angel] came to me from my Lord [Allah] and said, 'Whoever among your Ummah sends Salaam upon you, Allah will record for him ten good deeds and will erase for him ten evil deeds, and will raise his status by ten degrees, and will return his greeting with something similar to it.'"

Al-Bayhaqi reports that Abu Hurairah said that Muhammad said, "Send the Salaam on Allah's messengers and prophets for Allah sent them as He sent me."

This point is further founded in the saying by Muhammad, "The miser is the one in whose presence I am mentioned, then he does not send the Salam upon me." This was recorded in .

Anas bin Malik said, "The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: 'Whoever sends salah upon me once, Allah (SWT) will send salah upon him tenfold, and will erase ten sins from him, and will raise him ten degrees in status.'"

— Collected by Al-Nasa'i, , Book 13, Hadith 119

Salafi ruling on abbreviating prayers upon Muhammad

Scholars of the Salafi branch of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia have instructed their followers not to abbreviate the upon Muhammad. For example, Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, said:

As it is prescribed to send prayers upon the Prophet (peace and prayers of Allah be upon him) in prayer when saying the , and it is prescribed when giving , saying and praying for forgiveness, and after the , and when entering and exiting the mosque, and when mentioning him in other circumstances, so it is more important to do so when writing his name in a book, letter, article and so on. So it is prescribed to write the prayers in full so as to fulfil the command that Allah has given to Muslims, and so that the reader will remember to say the prayers when he reads it. So one should not write the prayers on the Prophet (peace and prayers of Allah be upon him) in short form such as writing (S) or (SAWS) etc, or other forms that some writers use, because that is going against the command of Allah in His Book, where He says (interpretation of the meaning):

Send blessings on him and salute him with a (becoming) salutation."^{[Quran 33:56 (Translated by Shakir)]}

And that (writing it in abbreviated form) does not serve that purpose and is devoid of the virtue of writing " (May Allah send prayers and peace upon him)" in full. Moreover the reader may not take notice of it and may not understand what is meant by it. It should also be noted that the symbol used for it is regarded as disapproved by the scholars, who warned against it.

Applied to angels and prophets

in Arabic script

Some honorifics apply to the archangels (Jibril, Mikhail, etc.) as well as any other Islamic prophets preceding Muhammad (Isa as, Musa as, Ibrahim as etc.). Group of modern scholars from Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Yemen, and Mauritania has issued fatwa that the angels should be invoked with blessing of , which also applied to human prophets and messengers. This fatwa was based on the ruling from Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.

• (Arabic: عليه السلام)
  • Translation: "Peace be upon him"
  • Abbreviation: "AS"
• • Translation: "On him are the blessings and the peace of Allah"
  • Abbreviation: "ASW"

Applied to companions of Muhammad

File:Ar-رضى الله عنه.svg

"May Allāh be pleased with him" in Arabic.

Some honorifics are used after companions () of Muḥammad:

• (Arabic: رضي الله عنه)
  • Translation: "May Allāh be pleased with him"
  • Abbreviation: "RA"
  • Example:
• (Arabic: رضي الله عنها)
  • Translation: "May Allāh be pleased with her"
  • Example:
• (Arabic: رضي الله عنهما)
  • Translation: "May Allāh be pleased with both of them"
  • Example:
• (Arabic: رضي الله عنهم)
  • Translation: "May Allāh be pleased with them"
  • Example:

Applied to enemies of Muhammad

Some honorifics are not used in the sense of "honoring" a person, and are instead used after the mention of the enemies (Arabic: العَدُوّ, romanized: al-'aduww) of Muḥammad:

• (Arabic: لعنة الله عليه)
  • Translation: "May the curse of Allāh be upon him"
  • Example:

Applied to scholars and saints

"May Allah's mercy be upon him" in Arabic.

Some honorifics apply to highly revered scholars and people thought to be of high spiritual rank who have died:

• (Arabic: رَحْمَةُ الله عليه)/ (Arabic: رَحِمَهُ الله)
  • Abbreviation: "RH"
  • Translation: "May Allah's mercy/ blessing be upon him"
  • Example:
• (Arabic: رَحْمَةُ الله عليها)/ (Arabic: رَحِمَها الله)
  • Translation: "May Allah's mercy/ blessing be upon her"
  • Example:
• (Arabic: رَحْمَةُ الله عليهم)
  • Translation: "May Allah's mercy/ blessing be upon them"

If a revered scholar is still alive, the following is custom:

• (Arabic: حفظه الله)
  • Abbreviation: "HA"
  • Translation: "May Allah preserve him"
• (Arabic: فرج الله عنه)
  • Abbreviation: "FA"
  • Translation: "May Allah grant him relief"

Unicode

See also: Arabic script in Unicode § Word ligatures

Unicode
UTF-8 Encoding	Symbol	Unicode Name	Transcription	Arabic	English
ؑ	Template:Huge	Arabic sign ALAYHE ASSALLAM			peace be upon him
ؒ	Template:Huge	Arabic sign RAHMATULLAH ALAYHE			God have mercy upon him
ؓ	Template:Huge	Arabic sign RADI ALLAHOU ANHU			God be pleased with him