The khuṭbat al-kitāb—the illuminated opening of the book, the basmala set in a jeweled panel beneath the headpiece
For five centuries, no book has carried the blessings upon the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ further than the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt. It has been recited in the lodges of Istanbul and the villages of the Malay world, carried on pilgrimage, gilded in court ateliers, taught with unbroken chains of transmission, and handed down through families as an inheritance. After the Quran itself, no book in the Islamic tradition has been so consistently honored in gold.
The edition offered here continues that history in our own time. Its text was written out in full by Shaykh Dr. Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Ladan raḥimahu Allāh, Mufti of Rashaya. Every one of its pages is illuminated in raised gold. It was printed on a heavy luxury Italian paper and bound entirely by hand in full leather. Only ten copies were produced in this royal folio size—a limit recorded in the colophon itself, in a single line: العدد : ١٠.
Watch the Edition
A closer look at the calligraphy, illumination, and binding
The Text
Imam Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Jazūlī al-Ḥasanī raḥimahu Allāh (807–870 AH / 1404–1465 CE) came out of the Sūs, in Morocco's far south, was formed in the madrasas of Fez, and took the path of the Shādhilī order. The book he left gathered the ṣalawāt upon the Prophet ﷺ into a single ordered whole and gave the practice its enduring form: aḥzāb apportioned across the days of the week, so that the entire book is completed as a weekly cycle of prayer. His mausoleum in Marrakesh stands among the Seven Saints of the city, and it is still visited.
What followed has no parallel in Islamic devotional literature. From the Maghrib the Dalāʾil moved into every land of the umma—copied in the ateliers of the Ottoman capital, taught in Cairo and the Hijaz, carried into Kashmir and across the subcontinent, and on into the Malay archipelago. Wherever it went, to write and gild it beautifully was understood as itself an act of blessing upon the Prophet ﷺ. Five centuries of scribes, illuminators, and binders have worked in that understanding. This book is the newest of their line.
The Most Beautiful Names of Allah, set in illuminated compartments of blue and gold
The Calligrapher
The entire text is in the hand of Shaykh Dr. Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Ladan raḥimahu Allāh (1953–2018). He took his doctorate at al-Azhar, served as a judge in the sharia courts, and held professorships; in 2011 he was appointed Mufti of Rashaya in Lebanon—the office he held until his death on the first day of 2018, and which stood vacant for five years after him. This Dalāʾil is among his final works.
His cartouche does not say that he wrote the book. It says the honor of writing it was attained by him. The formula is old, and it is exact: in this tradition the scribe does not claim the text—he is admitted to its service. A working jurist, a man whose life was spent in judgment, teaching, and fatwa, gave his hand, line by line, to the ṣalawāt upon the Prophet ﷺ. The Dalāʾil was composed by a scholar; five and a half centuries later, it is written again by a scholar. The book has never passed out of the hands of its own people.
“The honor of writing it was attained by…”
The scribe's formula · From the calligrapher's cartouche
The Illumination
There is no plain opening anywhere in the volume. The illumination of Emad Yousof runs through every page: bands of gold framing the text, polychrome floral margins, gold medallions carrying the page numbers, and full serlevha openings at the head of the book. The gold is raised—it sits in relief on the page and catches the light as the leaf turns. Within the black naskh, the headings and the words of the Prophet ﷺ are set in red. In the classical tradition, illumination of this completeness—every page, without exception—was lavished above all on the Quran and on the Dalāʾil. It is the visual language of veneration, and here it is carried through to the last leaf.
The two Sanctuaries on facing leaves of gold—the Kaaba at Mecca and the Mosque of the Prophet ﷺ at Medina
In the manner of the great manuscript Dalāʾils, the two Sanctuaries appear on facing leaves of gold—the Kaaba within the Sacred Mosque at Mecca, and the Mosque of the Prophet ﷺ at Medina, painted in the Ottoman manner. Deeper in the volume, the leaves themselves turn to a dusky rose, framed in lapis and gold.
Leaves of dusky rose, bordered in lapis and gold
The Book Itself
The binding is worked entirely by hand: full leather over boards, gold tooling, gilt edges, tissue guards. The text was established, fully voweled, and verified by the scholar Bassām Muḥammad Bārūd, so that, unlike the antique manuscript copies admired in library cases, this Dalāʾil can be recited from with complete confidence in every letter.
And it is monumental. For most of its history the Dalāʾil was an intimate book—manuscript copies were made for the hand and the pocket, opened daily, worn smooth by private devotion. This edition was conceived for the text's other setting: the gathering. At royal folio, approximately 48 × 36 centimeters and 7.3 kilograms, it is not a volume for the lap or the shelf. It asks for a lectern, a raḥla, a dedicated table. Its page carries across a room, so that an elder can read from it aloud and be followed by everyone present—the weekly majlis, the lodge after the dawn prayer, the household completing the cycle together. A book at this scale restores the Dalāʾil to the settings it was made for.
Full leather over boards with gold tooling—central medallion and cornerpieces in the classical manner
Edition Particulars
Shipping & Handling
Fully insured shipping. Dispatched within one business day. Signature required upon delivery.
Acquisition
In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said that whoever sends one blessing upon him, Allah sends ten blessings upon him in return. Everything in this book—the mufti's hand, the gold on every page, the leather, the scale—exists to occasion that exchange, again and again, for as long as the book endures. Whoever takes it into their care takes in a means of blessing that renews with every recitation. It is complete, bound, and waiting for a voice.
Of the ten copies produced, we were able to procure one. When it is placed—in a home, a mosque, an institution, a family waqf—the opportunity closes with it. Enquiries are welcomed from collectors and institutions.
