We Sent
10,414,223
Salawat!
Rabi al-Awwal came and went, and we reached our ten million goal of salawat. There were days I wondered and worried, and days I fussed and fretted. Then only a few hoursbefore the end of the month, the last 200,000 came in and we had reached our goal.
I was speechless. Literally.
I sat at the computer three or four times.
“What can I say that will thank the participants enough so that they know how much I personally appreciate their efforts?”
“What can I say that will fill their hearts with gladness for their accomplishment?”
“What can I say that will help them keep the habit, and with it grow closer to the Prophet (s)?”
I thought about the enormity of the number. If I tell them how big a million is (it takes 23 days just to count to a million) will they understand what an incredible accomplishment 10 million salawat are?
Everything seemed to shrink in the face of the ten million salawat, and when I thought about the
I had trouble wrapping my mind around the magnitude of the month.
Our world is full of so much detail – so many things that get in the way of the ‘bigger’ things; yet here, in this month, you all came together and did a bigger thing. The prayers you sent to the Prophet (s) came back to you in ways magnanimous, and returned to our ummah in multitudes. I am so proud, so pleased, so thankful.
Some statistics you might enjoy:
Most salawat by country:
Syria: 5,956,020US: 3,004,572
UK: 1,099,855
Canada: 114,253
UAE: 64,370
Switzerland: 17,000
Sweden: 5,500
China: 100
Most salawat in the US by State:
IL: 1,915,192
MI: 863,526
CA: 75,094
NJ: 65,183
CT: 27,703
VA: 16,343
KS: 12,588
PA: 10,174
OH: 7,944
NY: 5,800
Most salawat in the UK by city:
Oxford: 422,229
Cardiff: 334,987
Wakefield: 114,800
Birmingham: 100,084
Congratulations! May Allah write us among those who are the siblings of the Prophet (s) – those he longed to meet. May our prayers upon him (s) be accepted, and may they be as ropes that tie us to him, his sunnah and to each other.
Allahumma salli `ala sayyidina Muhammad.
