- published: 05 Jul 2014
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Many Muslims when praying their daily prayers have to say the Salat Ibrahimiya.
The Salat-e-Ibrahimiya is "ALLAHUMMA SALLI 'ALA MUHAMMADIW WA 'ALA AALI MUHAMMADIN KAMAA SALLAITA 'ALA IBRAHIMA WA 'ALA AALI IBRAHIMA INNAKA HAMEEDUM MAJEED. ALLAHUMMA BAARIK 'ALA MUHAMMADIW WA 'ALA AALI MUHAMMADIN KAMAA BAARAKTA 'ALA IBRAHIMA WA 'ALA AALI IBRAHIMA INNAKA HAMEEDUM MAJEED."
This can be rendered to mean: "O Allah! Send prayers upon Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad, as Thou sent prayers upon Abraham and the Family of Abraham. Lo! Thou art Praiseworthy, Glorious. O Allah! Send blessings upon Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad, as Thou sent blessings upon Abraham and the Family of Abraham. Lo! Thou art Praiseworthy, Glorious."
Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to describe this or any of the following phrases as 'honorifics', since the latter are titles (as in the Persian form Hadrat-i Muhammad, where the honorific precedes the name). There seems to be no precise English word for the terms discussed here, but salawat could translate as 'blessings' or even 'prayers'.
Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an American Islamic scholar, and (with Zaid Shakir and Hatem Bazian) is co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States. He is a convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding. He has described the 9/11 attacks as "an act of 'mass murder, pure and simple'". Condemning the attacks, he has also stated "Islam was hijacked ... on that plane as an innocent victim".The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that he "is arguably the west's most influential Islamic scholar" and added that "many Muslims find his views hard to stomach."
Hamza Yusuf was born to two academics in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. Hamza Yusuf spent four years studying in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Middle East. Later he traveled to West Africa and studied in Mauritania, Medina, Algeria, and Morocco under such scholars as Murabit al Haaj; Baya bin Salik, head of the Islamic court in Al-'Ain, United Arab Emirates; Muhammad Shaybani, Mufti of Abu Dhabi; Hamad al-Wali; and Muhammad al-Fatrati of Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.[citation needed] After more than a decade abroad, he returned to the United States and earned degrees in nursing from Imperial Valley College and religious studies at San José State University.[citation needed]