There is nothing wrong with saying “O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad as much as the number of Your creation”
Question

                Is it permissible for us to say, “O Allah, send blessings and peace upon Muhammad and his family, as much as the number of Your creation, as much as pleases You, as much as the weight of Your Throne, as much as the ink of Your words”?
Praise be to Allah.
		We do not see anything wrong with sending blessings upon 
		the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) in the wording 
		mentioned in the question. Sending blessings upon the Prophet (blessings 
		and peace of Allah be upon him) is a kind of du‘aa’ (supplication), and 
		when it comes to du‘aa’, some du‘aa’s are limited to specific formats 
		and wording, and some are unrestricted and the door is open to whatever 
		meaning the one who is asking, calling upon Allah and praying intends, 
		on condition that that does not include anything that is contrary to 
		Islamic teachings. 

	Al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) said: 

	Here we see Imam ash-Shaafa‘i (may Allah elevate his status) 
	– who is one of those who showed the most veneration towards the Prophet 
	(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) – saying in the introduction to 
	his book, which is the primary reference for the followers of his madhhab: O 
	Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad… And towards the end he said: Every time 
	mindful people remember him, and every time heedless people forget him. It 
	is as if he extrapolated that from the saheeh hadith in which it says: 
	“Glory be to Allah the number of His creation.” Al-Qaadi ‘Iyyaad wrote a 
	chapter in his book ash-Shifa’ describing ways of sending blessings 
	upon the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), in which he 
	quoted marfoo‘ reports from a number of the Sahaabah and Taabi‘een. End 
	quote. 

	This was quoted by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Gharaabeeli (835 
	AH), who was a close companion of Ibn Hajar, as it says in one of the 
	manuscripts that were found by Shaykh al-Albaani. See: Sifat Salaat an-Nabi 
	sall Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam (172). See also: Asl Sifat Salaat an-Nabi 
	sall Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam (3/939). 

	The scholars differed concerning one who says, “O Allah, send 
	blessings upon Muhammad the number of such and such”, as to whether he would 
	be rewarded as much as that number, or he would be given one great reward. 
	What was stated with certainty by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah 
	have mercy on him) was that he will be given one reward, and he is not going 
	to get the same reward as someone who actually does that number of salawaat 
	(sending blessings upon the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon 
	him)), but this one reward will be greater than the reward of one who sends 
	blessings upon the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) in the 
	regular manner (without adding such phrases). 

	He (may Allah have mercy on him) said: 

	If it is said to a man: Say tasbeeh twice, or say tasbeeh 
	three times, or one hundred times; he must inevitably say Subhaan Allah, 
	Subhaan Allah (Glory be to Allah, glory be to Allah), until he has 
	completed the number. If he wanted to make it brief, he would say: 
	Subhaan Allah twice, or one hundred times, but in fact he would only 
	have said tasbeeh once. The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon 
	him) said to the Mother of the Believers Juwayriyah, 
	“After I left you 
	I said four words which, if they were weighed against what you have said 
	today, they would outweigh it: ‘Subhan Allah ‘adada khalqihi; subhaan 
	Allah zinata ‘arshihi, subhaan Allah rida nafsihi, subhaan Allah midaada 
	kalimatihi (Glory be to Allah, as much as the number of His creation; 
	glory be to Allah as much as the weight of His Throne; glory be to Allah as 
	much as pleases Him; glory be to Allah as much as the ink of His 
	words).” Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh. What is meant is that 
	Allah, may He be glorified, deserves glorification as much as that number. 
	This is like the hadith in which the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah 
	be upon him) said: “Rabbana laka al-hamd mil’ al-samawaati wa mil’ al-ard 
	wa mil’a ma baynahuma wa mil’a ma shi’ta min shay’in ba’d (Our Lord, to 
	You be praise filling the heavens, filling the earth, filling everything in 
	between and filling whatever else You will besides that).”  It does not mean 
	that he said tasbeeh as much as that, because the phrase “as much as” 
	sometimes describes how much a person did, and what he did is limited and is 
	not infinite; and sometimes it means “as much as the Lord deserves”, and 
	this is a statement that deserves great reward. Otherwise, if the worshipper 
	says in his prayer, “Subhaan Allah ‘adada khalqihi (Glory be to Allah 
	as much as the number of His creation),” he has only said tasbeeh (glorified 
	Allah) once. When the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) 
	prescribed that the worshipper should glorify Allah (tasbeeh) thirty-three 
	times after each prayer, and praise Him (tahmeed) thirty-three times, and 
	magnify Him (takbeer) thirty-three times, if he said, “Glory be to Allah and 
	praise be to Allah and Allah is Most Great as much as the number of His 
	creation,” he would only have glorified Him once. 

	End quote from Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa 
	(23/11-12) 

	He also (may Allah have mercy on him) 
	said: 

	The best of this type of supplication is that which is most 
	comprehensive in praise, such as saying, 
	“Subhaan Allah 
	‘adada khalqihi (Glory be to Allah as much as the number of His 
	creation)”. This is better than merely saying, “Subhaan Allah (Glory 
	be to Allah)”. And saying, “Al-hamdu Lillah ‘adada ma khalaqa fi’s-sama’, wa 
	‘adada ma khalaqa fi’l-ard, wa ‘adada ma baynahuma, wa ‘adada ma huwa 
	khaaliq (Praise be to Allah as much as the number of what He has created in 
	heaven, and as much as the number of what He has created on earth, and as 
	much as the number of what is between them, and as much as the number of 
	that which He is going to create) is better than simply saying, “Al-hamdu 
	Lillah (praise be to Allah).”

	End quote from al-Waabil as-Sayyib min al-Kalim at-Tayyib 
	(p. 87) 

	Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: 

	The superiority of saying “Subhaan 
	Allah wa bi hamdihi ‘adada khalqihi wa rida nafsihi wa zinat ‘arshihi wa 
	midaada kalimatihi 
	(Glory and praise be to Allah, as much as the number of His creation, as 
	much as pleases Him, as much as the weight of His Throne and as much as the 
	ink of His words)” is 
	many times greater than merely saying “Subhaan Allah (glory be to 
	Allah).” That is because when a person says that, the meaning he will 
	reflect upon – “Subhaan 
	Allah wa bi hamdihi ‘adada khalqihi (Glory 
	and praise be to Allah, as much as the number of His creation)” 
	– learning about His attributes, declaring Him to be above all shortcomings 
	and venerating Him in terms of the number he mentions – is greater than if 
	he simply says “Subhaan Allah.” 

	This is called multiple dhikr, which is greater in praise 
	than single dhikr. Therefore it is better than it. This only becomes clear 
	when you reflect on the meaning of this dhikr and understand it. When a 
	person says, “Subhaan 
	Allah wa bi hamdihi ‘adada khalqihi (Glory 
	and praise be to Allah, as much as the number of His creation)”, 
	this is a statement of what the Lord deserves of glorification as much as 
	the number of all created beings that ever existed or will ever exist, to an 
	infinite degree. 

	This is a statement that declares Allah to be above all 
	shortcomings, glorifying Him and praising Him that great number of times, 
	that no one could count or enumerate. It does not mean that the one who says 
	this has said tasbeeh this number of times; rather he is saying that what 
	Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, deserves of tasbeeh (glorification) 
	is a tasbeeh that reaches this number, which, if there was a number greater 
	than it, he would have mentioned it. 

	End quote from al-Manaar al-Muneef (p. 34) 

	The author of al-Mawaahib al-Jaleel (1/20) quoted the 
	faqeeh Ibn ‘Arafah as saying:

	He will be given a reward greater than that of one who sends 
	one salutation (upon the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon 
	him)), not the reward of the one who sends that number of salutations. End 
	quote. 

	To sum up: there is nothing wrong with sending salutations 
	upon the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) with this 
	wording: “O Allah, send blessings and peace upon Muhammad, as much as the 
	number of Your creation, as much as pleases You, as much as the weight of 
	Your Throne, as much as the ink of Your words”, speaking directly to Allah 
	and asking of Him, because saying “O Allah (Allahumma)” is a call, 
	directly addressing Allah. One may also say, “May Allah send blessings upon 
	our Prophet Muhammad as much as the number of His creation…”. This is a 
	valid wording in linguistic terms. 

	In question no. 126934 we stated 
	that this wording is mustahabb in the case of tasbeeh (glorifying Allah) and 
	tahleel (saying Laa ilaaha ill-Allah), and there is no difference between 
	that and sending salutations upon the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah 
	be upon him), because these are all adhkaar that are prescribed. We hope 
	that Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, will decree a reward for this 
	salutation greater and more abundant than the reward for a regular 
	salutation that does not include these phrases, but that is subject to 
	several conditions, as follows: 

	1.
	the one who says it should not believe that it has a 
	special virtue

	2.
	he should not think that it is a confirmed Sunnah from 
	the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) 
	

	3.
	he should not believe that it is better than the wording 
	of as-Salaah al-Ibraaheemiyyah that was taught to us by the Prophet 
	(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). This has been explained in fatwa 
	no. 88109

	4.
	he should not use it in the prayer; rather it should only 
	be used outside of the prayer, because the prayer – whether obligatory or 
	supererogatory – has its own adhkaar that are proven from the Prophet 
	(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him).

	And Allah knows best.