Not in the Quran: sending "blessings" when speaking about the prophet

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The Traditionalist constantly pours honourifics upon the prophet Muhammad whenever he mentions his name. One is given to believe that this is a mark of piety. And it may be.

However, the formulation typically is claimed to have origins in the Quran only at 33:56 – and here it is simply impossible for the text to mean what the Traditionalist wishes it to mean: that believers should "greet" or "send blessings" upon the prophet.

And this is only one example of the type of bait and switch practiced by the Traditionalist upon the believers.

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O you who heed warning:
Enter not the households of the prophet for a meal without waiting for its time save that leave be given to you.
But when you are called, enter.
And when you have eaten, disperse.
And seek not familiarity through storytelling.
That hinders the prophet
And he is shy of you.
But God is not shy of the truth.
And when you ask of his wives any item:
Ask it of them from behind a partition.
That is purer for your hearts and their hearts.
And it is not for you to hinder the messenger of God or to marry his wives after him ever.
That were tremendous in the sight of God.
If you reveal a thing or keep it secret:
God is knowing of all things.
They do no wrong concerning their fathers
Or their sons
Or their brothers
Or the sons of their brothers
Or the sons of their sisters
Or their women
Or what their right hands possess
When they are in prudent fear of God.
God is witness over all things.
God and his angels perform the duty befitting the prophet.
O you who heed warning: perform the duty befitting him
And greet with a salutation.
Those who hinder God and his messenger
God has cursed them in this world and the hereafter
And has prepared for them a humiliating punishment.
And those who hinder the believing men and the believing women with what they have not earned:
They bear a calumny and obvious falsehood.
O prophet: say thou to thy wives
And thy daughters
And the women of the believers
To draw down over them some of their garments.
That will tend to them being recognised and not hindered.
And God is forgiving, merciful. (33:53:59)

The duty binding upon the believers in the current context is found at the beginning of 33:50 (to arrive on time and not to enter the prophet’s house early). With this comes the injunction to greet with a salutation (that is: loudly and clearly to announce one’s presence before entering his house and not to enter it without permission) for the purposes of protecting the modesty of the occupants, but also that there should be no doubt as to the chastity of a wife (for reasons which in this context include ensuring complete moral transparency and integrity in the houses of the prophet).

The Qur’an does not say we are to greet the prophet – though the Traditionalist assumes that it does and often ‘translates’ accordingly; it says we are to greet. In recognition of the lamentable and undeniable need to overstate the obvious, I would add that the prophet is now dead. Just as there is today no need to arrive at his house on time, there is also no need to greet either him or his wives. The Traditionalist’s practice of pouring honourifics upon a dead person and ‘greeting’ him as part of his prayer ritual has no basis in the Qur’an, is a clear case of shirk, and borders on necromancy. This sort of deviation from clear and obvious good sense is one result of accepting values for Qur’anic terms derived from an external, extraneous literature.

All these men are to do is to keep the rules of God.
You do no wrong to eat together or separately.
And when you enter dwellings:
Salute one another with a greeting from God, blessed and good.
Thus God makes plain to you the proofs
That you might use reason. (24:61)

I recommend reading the whole of chapter 24 because it lays out all these rules for community living. All that is happening here at chapter 33 is that some particular rules governing the prophet’s house are added.

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