I find myself more and more reading articles regarding Islam these days with all thats going on in the world and I have a question. I know this is probably elementary and is not meant to offend in any way. In many post referencing Muhammad or Allah the name is followed by letters in perenthesis, what do these stand for? ie: Muhammad (PBUH) - Peace Be Upon Him I assume Muhammad (PBUH&HP) - ? Muhammad (saas) - ? Allah (SW) - ? Also is this format a requirement commanded by Muhammad or Allah, or just a show of respect?
I had also been assuming the meanings but I looked it up to be sure: PBUH = Peace Be Upon Him SAAS = Salla Allahu 'Alaihi Wa Sallam (Arabic: may the blessing and the peace of Allah be upon him I 'thought' that the 'SW' or 'SWT' meant 'Glory be to God' (but in Arabic) but Im not totally sure now? Im not sure what 'HP' is though.. Ive not heard that one yet. ----- You wouldnt think a Non-Muslim would have to say these things but apparently a Non-Muslim is not to be drawing charicatures of Muhammed now either. Personally, Im not interested in drawing a picture of Muhammad if its going to offend someone. However, For me to say 'Glory to Allah' would be insincere since I dont actually believe that Muhammeds Allah is real. It would be a 'mockery' if I said it.
SWT is Sabhanahu wa'tala I forget the exact meaning, but it's used after mentioning Allah, so you can probably guess... Best to just wait for Cat to get here and educate us, I guess. hehe HP is a new one for me, too...wow
Your welcome, btw, only sombody with a sick mind could possibly interpretate your post as offending, so you dont need to trouble your self too much about that ^^. Acually, its not just a way of showing respect towards our most beloved but a command, this due to a number of hadiths, some of which are: 1- The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says, "He who sends (Allah's) blessings upon me once, Allah will bless him ten times." (Reported by Muslim) 2- Also, He says: "Those who are most deserving of my intercession on the Day of Judgment are those who used to increasingly seek Allah’s Blessing for me.” (Reported by At-Tirmidhi) 3- Another hadith states: "The miser is the one who hears my name mentioned and does not seek blessings for me.” (Reported by At-Tirmidhi) As muslims were supposed to love all the prophets and believe in all of them due to a number of verses such as: Say ye: "We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: And we bow to Allah (in Islam)." [2.136] Youve probably noticed that we say peace upon other prophets aswell, as for hp I have no idea what this means. It doesnt have soo much to do with if they drew his face or not but the issue lies on h the kind of message it sent, one filled with predjuice and racism. The Geneva convention disallows slighting a religious minority, and theres no point in insisting on supporting such things (although burning buildings up is a whole other issue). Both you and me know that if those pictures would of slighted jews in the same way it did to muslims the goverment would of condemned it (rightfully ofcourse) as anti semitic, but with muslims, who cares?
