Worldwide Salawat upon Muhammad | Lessons learned

Worldwide Salawat
As at Maghrib in Malaysia - Monday 5th Nov 2012

Bismillah.

Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah. I am delighted to be part of the global initiative on '1 Billion Salawat Day' (also known as 'Worldwide Salawat upon Muhammad Day') which began from Maghrib of the 4th of November 2012 (Sunday) until Maghrib of the 5th of November 2012 (Monday).

The goal was to get the Muslims to make 1 billion salawat. As at 7 a.m. Saturday, 3rd of November, about 64 million of salawat had been pledged. And today Monday, the stats have doubled. Ya Huu!

I have learned a lot from this noble, historical and highly commendable initiative. Thanks to the organizers and official supporters: Zaytuna College, New Islamic Directions, Al-Ghazzali Centre, United for Change, Celebrate Mercy, Deen Intensive Foundation and Seekers Guidance.

What have I learned? What can we learn?

1. I could do a lot more salawat than I initially thought.

2. It's good to set a daily target e.g. recite 3,000 salawat.

3. That I could really focus my effort on doing salawat if I wanted to.

4. It's better to make a simple/short salawat and be consistent than do a longer version but not consistent/regular.

5. It's a good idea to make a note of the number of salawat recited from time to time e.g. 500 done at 11 a.m. Monday - 1000 done at 5 p.m. Monday.

6. That Monday starts from Maghrib of Sunday so don't have to wait until Monday itself to start doing salawat. Likewise, can start reciting salawat on Thursday evening rather than wait until Friday morning.

7. When we set a goal to do a certain number of salawat say on Monday or Friday, we would appreciate the small window of opportunity, especially when the slot is almost ending as Maghrib comes.

8. My country (Malaysia) is pretty serious about making salawat. We were at number 8 on Monday morning and later in the afternoon overtook Egypt, to occupy the 7th place, out of the top 25 countries. [Kinda cool].

9. Wonder if people/governments were told that the World Bank would redeem 1 gold dinar for 1 salawat recited by a country, people would drop everything and rush to make salawat. And Governments would use whatever machinery they have to broadcast and campaign about the golden offer. If we but knew, 1 salawat is worth more than 1 gold dinar, only that it's intangible.

10. USA and UK are not officially a Muslim country but they are ranked 1st and 2nd when it comes to salawat! MashaAllah! Congrats guys! Err...wonder why Saudi Arabia is ranked 13th? And cheers to Germany for occupying #25. I never knew there're so many Muslims there conscious of the Prophet s.a.w. But USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Germany still have plenty of time to improve their salawat ranking further because it's not Maghrib yet over there.

11. If somebody captured a photo of planet Earth from Maghrib 4th Nov 2012 to Maghrib 5th Nov 2012, I'm pretty sure we look brighter and more luminous than we have ever been. But we would look prettier if  we did 1 billion salawat or more.

Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad.

I pledge to make a daily report card of my salawat, InshaAllah.
On Samsung Galaxy Note II would be nice.