Advice from Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad (may Allah have mercy upon him and benefit us by him).
If someone combines between bestowing prayers upon the Prophet ﷺ (salawat) and seeking forgiveness (istighfar) they will be guaranteed safety.
Allah says: Allah will not punish them while you are with them, nor will He punish them while they seek forgiveness (8:33).
He will not punish this nation as He punished the previous nations as long as the Prophet ﷺ is with us. He is still with us with his spirit and with his Sacred Law and he is with us if we bestow prayers upon him. If you bestow prayers upon him you are united with him and if you give him greetings of salam he returns those greetings. So if he is with us we will be safe from Allah’s punishment and if we seek forgiveness from Allah we will also be safe.
We should therefore combine salawat and istighfar. There is no quicker means of getting closer to Allah in this time than doing these two things. This is a prayer upon the Prophet along with istighfar which I took from my shaykh, Habib Ahmad bin Muhsin al-Haddar. He said that this prayer takes the place of a spiritual guide (if you do not have one):
اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ على سَيِّدِنا مُحَمَّدٍ النَّبِيِّ الأُمِّيِّ و على آلِهِ و سَلِّمْ تَسْلِيماً و أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ العَظِيمَ و أَتُوبُ إِلَيْهِ
Allahumma salli `ala sayyidina Muhammad an-nabi’l-ummi wa `ala alihi wa sallim tasliman wa astaghfirullaha al-`Azima wa atubu ilayh
