Question:
My salams and du`as to you, ya shaykh. I have two favors to ask of you, if I may.
One is your du`a for my very ill daughter, the mother of three young children. The other is the reference for or English transliteration of the names of the 313 Messengers reported by Ibn Mas`ud (r), hand-written long ago by Maulana ash-Shaykh Nazim, may Allah grant him endless light and strong health. Would it be permissible to post the Arabic original, together with the transliteration in masajid and in homes, and recite their blessed names sometimes?
Thank you so much, and may Allah grant you His exalted pleasure and love.
Answer:
`Alaykum Salam,
May Allah Most High grant her and you reward and raise your stations. Allah gives them through such patience with tests and not only through acts and deeds.
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham said the report about the names of Prophets appears to be through Ka`b al-Ahbar. It might be found in one of the Qisas al-Anbiya‘ books or one of the books of tafsir, or maybe in an explanation of the hadith in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad that cites the number of 313 without actually naming them.
Of course we believe their names contain blessings but they are superseded by the blessing of the name of Sayyidina Muhammad upon him blessings and peace, just as the Fatiha and the Qur’an contain all of the previous Books and supersedes them. “The superiority of Qur’an over human speech is like my superiority over the least one among you,” a hadith states. WAllahu a`lam.
Shifa, ajr and `afiya in sha Allah.
Wassalam.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
