Why Your Greeting Matters More Than You Think

Different avenues We discussed his etiquettes in salah. We discussed his etiquettes in Udu. Discussed his etiquettes in fasting. In We discussed his etiquettes in eating. And now we have gone on to the chapters regarding the prophet etiquette. And assalam. Conveying a salaam. Important that we have kind of an introduction to this issue Something that needs to be said. and that is that a Salem conveying a salam, saying assalamu alaikum. actually a very serious thing. It's something that's been given a lot of attention by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says.

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Indeed Allah is going to recompense and judge a person over everything. So, he ends the verse here by saying in the Hashiba. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala judges and calculates and judgement every single thing that a person does. Meaning that even this that we say is a major thing because this is the of Islam. And not only that but it is the Tahiya, the salutations of Adam Alaihi Salam that he was taught by the angels. We mentioned the narration in Bukhari and Muslim. That's when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created Adam writes Rasulullah and.

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To them to say assalamu alaikum and he said, listen to what they salute you with because what they respond to you with is going to be your salutations and the salutations of your offspring after you. And so, he went to them and he said, assalamu alaikum. And they said to him. Assalamu alaikum. Now, this is the salutations of the Muslims and it's the salutations of the prophets and messengers. We need to discuss a couple of things. Number one, When we say What does this mean? What's the meaning of assalamu alaikum? Assalamu alaikum. The prophet tells us the meaning of it. In a narration collected by Al Bukhari Rahima Allah. and.

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Evil or any hardship or any. He provides that protection as well to the believers. So, when a person says it is essentially saying, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect you from any misfortune from any harm as he is a Salem. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Likewise, also means that may protection and peace be upon you all. and this articulates something. What does it articulate? It articulates goodwill and it articulates safety from the person who says assalam. So when you approach a people and you say assalamu alaikum. You are essentially announcing to them that you are not a threat to them and they are safe in your company. That's what you're saying. So, it's kind of counterintuitive if a person starts with and then goes on to harm the same people that they saluted with a salaam And so, when a person says, we initiate our contact with one another as Muslims based on this, based on safety, based on safety, when a person says they're essentially saying, you are safe in my presence and you're and, and you're safe, in your absence. With me. And when they say they are responding to that. and so, this is something that we have to be mindful of when we say it because a lot of the things that we say because we say it so much and it's kind of there's not a lot of thought behind it, right? if you say to someone, Giusec, you know, these are good things to say but a lot of us say it's just as a kind of filler in our statements but these are actually duas. These are prayers for a person. So, when we make that prayer for a person. If I say I have in my intention that I'm making dua for this person. Right? So these things are not to be misused. The prophet tells us that a Salam is something that is instrumental in spreading good will and love between the Muslim us. He says in the narration of Muslim.

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Other. It will sprout love between you all, convey a salam to one another. and so is not only something that is a salutation and an articulation of good will but it's also the basis of our dealings with each other. Johnny notice how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made the legislation and prescribed conveying a Sadam between each other. Notice how it's set. That we convey a salaam when we initiate contact with each other. And that we also convey a salaam when we break contact with each other. So when we enter each other's presence we say when we leave each other's presence we say assalamu alaikum. Alright? He this narration. The narration is in.

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Is not more important than the last. Meaning, saying a salaam when you approach and initiate contact is not more important than when you leave each other's presence. Meaning that they are both equal in their significance. Just imagine with me and and it's very true. Attack up. Assalamu alaikum.

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Right? If a Muslim approaches you. Good morning. how are you? you know, says all the pleasant things. Good afternoon. anything pleasant to initiate with you is you'll never take the place of You will leave that person's presence feeling what? Feeling that the interaction was deficient For this reason, the prophet.

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He said, the Jews speaking about the Jews of Madinah to the.

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And so because of the importance of lamb. There's a lot of rulings in the Quran, in the Sunnah, regarding a Salem, how to give it, how to respond, when to say assalam, how frequently, etcetera, etcetera. The prophet and his companions took a salaam so seriously that they would convey to one another even if they split up to go around the tree.

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This is because they would take every opportunity possible to say assalamu alaikum to each other. Likewise, in an academic Yani, Judea, to Salam, Bena, Sahaba,.

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However, if I have coworkers most of them are work with me. Every time I pass by their desk, I'm going to shake their hand, right? Every time we pass, they shake their hand. If you just saw me right now. Take in the hand is something that that is frequent than a Salem but a Salem is something constant. The companions took it very seriously. They took every opportunity they could to convey a salaam to one another because they understood the importance of and the uniqueness of a salam. It's unique. It's unique to the Muslims. And it's only for the Muslims. The prophet said in Bukhari a Muslim. Salam. He said, do not initiate a salaam to the Jews and the Christians. Meaning, idolaters and those who are. further away in their diversion from Islam. I mean, it's something only for Muslims to initiate Islam. You say to someone, that is only for the Muslims. And we will get into the etiquettes of that inshallah. But it's very important that we understand the seriousness of a Salem. A Salam is a very serious Shahira of Islam. I know that you all have felt this way before That have you ever met someone who's Muslim, you think they're Muslim? Maybe they're Arab, maybe they're from your country. And they approach you, maybe in public somewhere, and they don't say Assalam. And they speak with you and so, you feel in yourself something is off about this person. It doesn't feel this person is Correct? We all have that feeling. Says, what's up with this guy? How about It's like they're not full-blown Muslim or something. It doesn't mean that that's the case but that's the feeling that a person has. Right? So, a salaam is very important. It's to be taken very seriously. This is why we never play around with the wording of a Salem. And if you bow the nest, okay?

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General the most influential prophet upon our legislation after the prophet Muhammad is which prophet? Ibrahim Alaihi Salam. Why? Ibrahim. most influential prophet of all the prophets upon our religion after the prophet Muhammad is Ibrahim. tells the prophet we have articulated to you in revelation, follow the religion way of Ibrahim. So, essentially, anything that we hear about in the Quran, in the Sunnah, about Ibrahim, if it doesn't contradict the ruling an hour in the words of the prophet Muhammad in the Quran, it's considered to be part of his sunnah. In general. So, the point is, is that a Salam is very serious thing. and hence, there are many etiquettes regarding a setup. how to initiate it, who should initiate it, how to respond, etcetera. initiating a salaam in the opinion of the majority of the scholarship of Islam is it is preferable. and responding to a salaam is obligatory. It's obligatory because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commands it in the Quran, right? So, it is preferable to initiate a Sadam, obligatory to respond should initiate the other with a prophet goes into these details. He says.

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The one who is writing should initiate the one who is walking with and the smaller group should initiate the bigger group with Assalam. And then the prophet added and the one who is passing by the one who is standing still. So, we understand that essentially, the one who has the the person who is the the etiquettes of Assalam should be as follows. The young should initiate the elder. Passing should initiate the standing the walkin g or standing should initiate to the person who is sitting. The one who is riding should initiate the one who is who is walking. And the smaller group should initiate the larger group. Right? And most of the time, we see this in people's actions. Even if they don't know this narration, the customs of the Muslims have to add the Now, what about what we see a lot of people do and that is instead of a salaam, hand.

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Rather, if a person gestures with his hand, it should be because it's not proper or it's not possible to say a sadam. Verbally, loud to make them hear. Someone's far away. You don't have to scream at them. If someone's behind glass or if you're driving by in a car, right? The prophet did this He mentions that a group of women, sisters were sitting the masjid, and the prophet passed by them, encountered them, and he set a salaam to them and in another wording of this narration, he gestured with his hand He says, the hand gesture should always accompany a salam, be accompanied by a salam. You know, if I gesture with my hand, I should also say verbally. Just loud enough for myself to hear. Right? Likewise, the movement of the head this, or whatever people do. This is something that the companions frowned upon. And they mentioned that this is the way that the people of the book convey salutations to each other, not Muslims, right? We mentioned that when a person initiates contact that the individual starts with the Likewise, if a person breaks contact leaves the gathering or what have you, they leave with a Salem. Now, if a person wishes to say something else along with a Salem. So, for instance, a person wants to say good morning, good afternoon, do they have to start with a salaam or can they start with something else? The of the prophet the mass majority of his sunnah is that he would begin with a salam. However, hadith and had.

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And then you rejoin then you should initiate a salaam once again.