does allah pray for muhammad refuting david wood references notes

4. Meaning of ‘Salah’ or ‘Rehmah’ when used along with ‘Barakah’ (Qur’an 11:73):

Yet another attempt to complicate the things made by them is discussing the word ‘Barakah’ along with ‘Salah’ and ‘Rehmah’ especially when it is used with either of them like in Quran 11:73 and the Salutations (durood) recited in ritual prayers.
Now as to the word ‘Barakah’, its meaning is:

البركة ثبوت الخير الالهى في الشئ


"Barakah in a thing shows the facilitation/ease/goodness endowed by Allah."
(See Mufradaat fi Ghraib Al-Quran by Isfahani 1/44)


This also shows that Barakah is the manifestation of Allah's Rehmah (Mercy). So in Quran 11:73 it means Allah bestows his Mercy and specially Barakah, a manifestation of the same which suits the context that Allah will make their having a son at an old age easy by His Mercy which otherwise seems improbable. And in the salutations (durood) where it is used along with ‘salah’ there we pray to Allah to bestow both the manifestations of his ‘Rehmah’ on the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

5. A weak narration brought forward also supports our contention:

Then these people try to use a tradition from Ibn Kathir which they translate as:

"The Israelites said to Musa: Does your Lord pray? Musa said: Fear Allah, O Sons of Israel!
Allah said: O Musa! What did your people say? Musa said: O my Lord, You already know? They said: Does your Lord pray? Allah said: Tell them My prayer for My servants is that My Mercy should precede My Anger. If it were not so, I would have destroyed them."

Firstly this tradition is not authentic according to the rules of reporting as mentioned by Albani in Silsala Ahadith Daeefa 3/387 Hadith 1388 thus it is not an evidence for us.

Secondly the last part of the narration above also belies the notion of taking ‘salah’ in the sense of supplication once used for Allah.