By G.M.Shakir (Adv.)

"Lo! Allah and His angels shower on the Prophet. O ye who believe! Ask blessings on him and salute with him a worthy salutation."
This verse is divided in two parts. Part one of it tells a fact i.e. Allah and his angels shower his blessings on the Prophet (SAW) and the second part makes it absolute direction that the believers must ask for the blessings on him and offer salutation to him.
This verse is that single verse where in the direction has been given on the basis that Allah and his Angeles do the same thing towards the Prophet (SAW), so that believers must also ask for the blessings for the Prophet (SAW). No such other verse is found in the whole Quran. It is also a fact that such type of direction is neither found in the New Testament not in Old Testament and none of the Prophets (AS) mentioned in those books have been held with such respect and esteem. Such direction is also no where found in the books of Aryan religions. There are some other verses as show the high position and esteem of the Prophet (SAW) before Allah. The direction to ask for blessing for the Prophet has many reasons. As per the chapter 2nd the human being is viceroy of Allah on this planet and he has to administer the laws of Allah on his subordinates .The relevant verse is "Behold thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said "Wilt thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not." .Accordingly, he has to discharge the job of viceroy on earth and once Allah himself makes blessing for the Prophet,(SAW) the Muslims are bound to do the same. However, they themselves can not shower the blessings on Prophet (SAW) they are duty bound to ask Allah for showering his blessings for him. They are competent to send Salaam to him they must do that act. Here it may also be necessary that as the viceroy of Allah he has to develop in him qualities and exercise those qualities within his jurisdiction as are qualities of Allah and administered by him throughout the universe. For instance, Allah is forgiving and for a Muslim one of qualities is being forgiving and controlling anger. "who control their anger and forgive other people for Allah loves such charitable people"3-134.Similarly, Allah is administering justice in whole universe and human being has been directed to do justice "Allah commands doing justice, doing good to others, and giving to near relatives, and He forbids indecency, wickedness, and rebellion: He admonishes you so that you may take heed."16-90. The Quran has at other place mentioned that the Prophet has been given a high esteem by Allah "And raised high the esteem (in which) thou (art held)"94-4.
This verse has a back ground. Chapter Ahzab has mentioned certain matters which took place in Medina and the hypocrites made a fuss over those. Thereby created annoyance to Muslim community in general and to Prophet (saw) in particular. One of these incidents was marriage of Hazrat Zaid with Hazrat Zainab. The lady being from Qurayish and Zaid a slave, born in Kalab clan. who was gifted by H.Khaditja to Prophet (SAW) and the Prophet adopted him as son. The Prophet proposed his marriage with Zainab .Though Zainab (RA) and her relatives did not like and hesitated for some time but when Quran took a serious note of it, they obeyed the direction. However, in hearts of hearts Zainab did not reconcile. Ultimately the marriage ended in divorce. Later on the Prophet (SAW)married Zainab under the directions of Allah. This marriage was made a tool by the hypocrites alleging this man has married his daughter -in-law, besides causing certain aspiration on the Prophet. (SAW)Though Quran had made many reforms by the said marriage .briefly summing.( 1) The relation of adoption which had hitherto been held as sacred as blood relation was held no relation at all. though it had legal sanctity in those days but illicit relations were also carried on under the garb of this man made relation.
2) The Quran, practically, equated the slaves and free through this marriage. The Quran as well as Hadith insist on equality and grants respect on the basis of one's piety. This marriage was a practical step for treating slaves equal to free person
3) This chapter also makes a statement regarding the final and last Prophet hood in the following words "Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets; and Allah is Aware of all things"( The original word in Arabic is "Khatam" which according to all interpreters means that there will not be any prophet after the Muhammad (SAW) .if the practice of differentiating between slave and free person and treating the adopted relations equal to blood relation were not eradicated at that time. Nobody was next to come for eradicating these practices.

At the time the verse which restricted number of wives to four , only, at a time , the Prophet had only four wives H.Ayisha,Hafsa, Saudah and Ummi Salmah (RA) but when in the next year the Prophet(SAW)married 5TH i.e. Zainab the hypocrites again raised objections to it. They tried to lower down the Prophet's image (Na ooz billah) by saying what is the meaning of this act . That for others he restricted the number to four but himself he violated the direction. However, when the Quran said with respect to this marriage "So when Zaid divorced his wife, We gave her to you in marriage, so that there remains no hindrance for the believers to wed the wives of their adopted sons if they divorced them. And Allah's Command had to be carried out." The propaganda failed but the hypocrites tried repeating it. In these circumstances, the direction was given that Muslim must ask for the blessings for the Prophet (SAW) and offer him salutations continuously. By doing so they are themselves benefited as the Prophet is not in need of blessings and salutation of the people because already Allah and angel are doing the same act. This is simply a direction by following which strong rapport will be developed between Prophet and ummah.
In fact the Prophet (SAW) is our most loved one and alternative for a lover is to pay more and more love and respect for his loved one , especially, when some prejudicial and detrimental statements are made. He must remember him more and more. Same thing has been advised to be done by a Muslim when annoyance is caused to Prophet. The annoyance was not caused at that time, but it is and has been caused throughout the history. (Sometimes by Western Scholars who pose to be most just persons .They are doing so by means of cartoons, stories, novels and photographs under the garb of art, literature and freedom of thought and ex-pression).So it becomes necessary that Muslims must always ask for blessings for the Prophet and offer him salutation. Hadith has also directed that Muslims must send salah and Salaam to the Prophet (SAW) .Besides, it is also a fact that we are highly indebted to Messenger of Allah (SAW). He suffered pain and every kind of persecution to save the human being from being sent to hell. Who always desired that people must accept the Din. Truly, we can not recompense for the countless favours and unlimited love which he had for humanity in general and Muslims in particular. Only we can do is to ask Allah for showering his blessings on him and salute him. The person who does so has been promised of great rewards .According to Ahmad and Ibni Majah "the angels continue to invoke the blessings of Allah upon a man as long as he devotes himself invoking peace and blessings of Allah upon me". There are many other traditions which give glad tidings for those who do so and the person who does not ask for blessings for the Prophet (Saw) has been cursed by the Prophet (SAW) .According to Tirmidhi "Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said: Let there be smeared with dust the nose of the person in whose presence I am mentioned, and he does not invoke blessing upon me……..".