Is it permissible to make people be quiet when they are talking by saying the following: “O people, remember Allah” or “Send blessings upon your Prophet”? For example, among us — according to some tribal customs — if a person wants to address one of the guests when people who are still talking amongst themselves, he says, “O people, send blessings upon your Prophet” or “Remember Allah,” then everyone falls silent, then he starts saying what he wants to say.
I heard one of the preachers at Jumu’ah (Friday) prayers say that it is not permissible to ask people to be quiet by saying “Send blessings upon your Prophet,” and it is not permissible to use this phrase to make people be quiet.
Praise be to Allah.
It seems that there is nothing
wrong with getting people’s attention by saying “Remember Allah” or “Send
blessings upon your Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
Al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may
Allah have mercy on him) said:
Some of our scholars, when they
want to say something or give an exhortation from time to time, stand up and
say: “Send blessings upon the Messenger of Allah,” then they speak briefly.
Then they say to them after that, “Send blessings upon the Messenger of
Allah.”
Was this narrated from the
Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)?
He replied:
What was narrated from the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in sermons and speeches
was that he would start by praising Allah, but there is nothing wrong with a
person sending blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) after that. So he may recite the Shahadah (testimony of faith) and
say: Ashhadu an la ilaha ill-Allah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan ‘Abduhu wa
Rasooluhu (I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear
witness that Muhammad is His slave and His messenger), and send blessings
upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then say, Amma
ba’d (to proceed), and start on the topic of his speech.
But some khateebs (orators),
when they see that the people are not paying attention, tell them, “Say, La
ilaha ill-Allah” or “Remember Allah.” And some of them say, “Send blessings
upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him),” intending
thereby to get the people’s attention. And some of them say, “Pay attention
and listen,” and so on.
It seems to me that those who
say this during the khutbah (sermon) do not intend that the listeners should
do this act of worship; rather their aim is to get the attention of their
audience.
I do not think that there is
anything wrong with this, in sha Allah. End quote.
Fatawa Noor ‘ala al-Darb (Fatawa
Mutafarriqah/ al-da’wah wa’l-Amr bi’l-Ma’roof wa’l-Nahy ‘an al-Munkar)
And Allah knows best.
