Abbreviations... or 'ABBR'

Many times when I am reading a post on a forum, an email, etc, I see abbreviations.

I myself am not free of this, occasionally I will use the 'Salams' or 'iA' (Insha Allah) when messaging on the phone.

However, I find it rather strange when we use abbreviations like the above at the beginning of an email, post etc and then proceed to write a page worth of words that are longer than a simple 'Assalaamu Alaikum'.

When I was studying, I used to see students using the first letter of Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam in their notes and exams. However, our teacher told us that it is best to write the complete durood rather than an abbreviation... after all, can we not take out the time to write a durood for the most beloved creation of Allah?

Since then I always wrote Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam in complete. This however was in Arabic, and I would manage to write the durood in such a way that saved space, like so. 

 

However there are always those who will go beyond. Mufti Ebrahim Salejee saheb once mentioned about writing the durood in the same fashion I mentioned above. Not to quote him, but the point he was making was that why do you want to save space in a durood on Rasulullah Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam? Why not write it in a straight line rather than box the durood? Is a durood not worth taking a little bit of extra time and space on a piece of paper?

I feel the same can be said for 'Assalaamu Alaikum', 'Insha Allah', 'Subhaanahu wa Ta'aala', and all those other duaas and praises that we abbreviate. If we can find the time to write long pieces of works with complicated words in English, then surely we can write down a few praises of Allah Ta'aala and His Nabi Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam.

May Allah Ta'aala give us all the tawfeeq. Ameen.