QMI-INS-071 · c. 2nd c. AH
Blessing on the Prophet by Ṣafwān, Client of Yaḥyā ibn Sulaymān, al-ʿUlā
الصلاة على النبي لصفوان مولى يحيى بن سليمان، العلا
al-ʿUlā, Saudi Arabia
- اللهم صلي
- على محمد النبي
- عبدك ورسو
- لك أمام المتقين و
- سيد المسلمين ورسول
- رب العلمين (العالمين) وكتب
- صفوان مولى يحيى بن
- سليمن (سليمان)
O God, bless Muḥammad the Prophet, Your servant and Your Messenger, leader of the God-fearing and master of the Muslims, and Messenger of the Lord of the worlds. And Ṣafwān, client of Yaḥyā ibn Sulaymān, wrote [this].
Ṣafwān invokes God’s blessing on the Prophet and names him by a chain of titles: “Your servant and Your Messenger, leader of the God-fearing (imām al-muttaqīn), master of the Muslims (sayyid al-muslimīn), and Messenger of the Lord of the worlds”. Titles of this kind belong to the formulas of blessing on the Prophet transmitted in the ḥadīth literature. A blessing on the Prophet in another form, modelled on the blessing on Abraham, survives on a stone from Gaza (QMI-INS-055cb).
Photograph: published by ʿAbd al-Ilāh al-Fāris, 6 February 2018. Reading: Ahmed W. Shaker (QMI).