درود شریف کی اہمیت

Abu Hurayrah (RA) said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "May he be disgraced, the man before whom my name is mentioned and he does not send blessings upon me. May he be disgraced, the man upon whom the month of Ramadan comes and passes in full and he does not have his sins forgiven (that is, even the blessed month of Ramadan does not become a means of his forgiveness). May he be disgraced, the man in whose presence his parents, or one of them, reach old age and he does not enter Paradise (by serving them)." (Tirmidhi)

In this hadith, disgrace, humiliation, and abasement are invoked against three kinds of men. Their common offence is that Allah had provided them the best opportunities to attain His special favour, mercy, and forgiveness, yet they did not even wish to benefit from Allah's mercy and forgiveness and chose to remain deprived of it. Such wretched people are indeed deserving of this prayer against them.

First is mentioned the man who did not send blessings and peace (durud) upon the Prophet ﷺ when he was mentioned. The believers have been commanded to observe the recitation of durud diligently, and its immense benefits and reward have been described; likewise the warning for not reciting durud is very severe. Against such a person there is the prayer of ruin, and also of forgetting the way to Paradise and of entering Hell — and that he is a wrongdoer and that he is a miser.

The second man is the one who, in his life, was granted the mercy-filled month of blessed Ramadan, yet did not take advantage of its blessed hours and made no arrangement for his 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; in it the Holy Qur'an was revealed, and in this blessed month is a single night that is better than a thousand months. For all these weighty reasons this month has immense importance and merit, and so in the noble hadith a warning is sounded against the person who reaches this month yet does not have himself forgiven: such a person is utterly disgraced and abased.

The third is the man who finds his parents, or one of them, in old age, yet does not attain Paradise for himself by serving and obeying them. After Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, the beings most deserving of obedience, honour, and service in all creation, of the earth and the heavens, are the parents, whose respect, honour, and obedience Allah mentioned in the Qur'an alongside His own worship:

"And your Lord has decreed plainly that you worship none but Him, and that you be kind to your parents. If, in your lifetime, one of them or both reach old age, do not say to them even 'uff', nor scold them, but speak to them with respect and honour, and lower to them the wing of humility out of tenderness and love, and keep praying: My Lord, have mercy on them just as they raised me when I was small." (Bani Isra'il 17:23-24)