Before reciting the Mawlid, the scholars traditionally make a number of intentions. They then read Sūrat al-Fātiḥah and donate its reward to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in the hope that their recitation and their intentions are accepted. Here are some of the intentions that Sayyidī al–Ḥabīb `Umar bin Hafīẓ (may Allah preserve him and benefit us by him) makes prior to reciting the Mawlid.

We recite the Fātiḥah..

with the intention that Allah—by us remembering Him and remembering His Messenger, our Master Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and his birth and awesome attributes—opens the doors to attaining His support and assistance and guidance and to attaining uprightness and the speedy relief of the suffering of the Ummah..

with the intention that Allah deflects calamities from us and from all of the people of lā ilāha ill’Allāh in the East and the West..

with the intention that He grants us His guidance in all our movements and our stillness and that He makes us firm upon the truth in what we say, we do and we believe..

with the intention that He enables us to perfect our following of this Prophet, the Chosen One, Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم in our words and deeds and intentions and aims and desires and our movements and our stillness and in every state, inward and outward, and that He allows us to beautify our emulation of him and allows us to walk along his path and drink from the waters he has drunk from..

with the intention that by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم He gazes with mercy upon us, our families, our children, those dear to us and our descendants and upon those who are attached to us..

with the intention that He fills our hearts with the light of faith and certainty and knowledge of Him.. that He makes us among those He has chosen to bring close to Him and among those He has blessed with the realities of sincere and pure slavehood to Him..

with the intention that He protects us from all harm and that He rectifies our inward and the outward, and that He allows us to attain the realities of taqwā..

with the intention that He makes the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم pleased with his Ummah and that He makes us, our families, our children and our friends a joy to his eye..

and that He grants us the greatest portion of His remembrance and the remembrance of this Prophet, the Chosen One..

and that He grants us the greatest portion of His closeness and the closeness of this Prophet, the Chosen One..

and that He grants us the greatest portion of His love and the love of this Prophet, the Chosen One..

and that He grants us the greatest portion of His care and the care of this Prophet, the Chosen One..

and that He grants us the greatest portion of His pleasure and the pleasure of this Prophet, the Chosen One.. inwardly and outwardly in every state and in every affair in this life, the Barzakh, the next life and that He gathers us together in the highest level of Firdaws while He is pleased with us.

with the intention that He allows us to be closest to him in the Barzakh, in the shade of the Throne, at the Pool, when he passes over the Bridge, and when he enters Paradise صلى الله عليه وسلم.

with the intention that He rectifies our hearts and our bodies, our inward and our outward and all our affairs, that He deflects all evil from us..

with the intention that He raises the ranks of the pious people of this Ummah and all the pious people and that we receive the blessings of the Prophets and Messengers and their families and those that follow them with excellence and that He gives them the greatest of rewards on our behalf and that He unites us with them in the Abode of Mercy while He is pleased with us, without any prior punishment or reprimand or trial or account..

with the intention of removing the tribulations that have befallen us and all the Muslims inwardly and outwardly..

with the intention that Allah blesses us with the most noble of attributes and unites us with the best of groups and that He rectifies every affair inwardly and outwardly in this life and the next..

with the intention that he gives us the best of endings in goodness, gentleness and wellbeing..

with the intentions that the pious people have made and will make and all pious intentions that the knowledge of our Lord, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful, encompasses for us and the whole Ummah..

We donate the reward of the Fātiḥah to the spirit of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم – al-Fātiḥah.