The Ruling on Returning the Salam to the People of Innovation
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: If the people of innovation greet you, do you return the salam to them?
Answer:
The bid'ah (religious innovation) varies, my brother. If it is a bid'ah that entails disbelief, it is not permissible to greet him, nor... No, if he greets you, you return the salam to him, but you do not initiate the greeting. However, if the bid'ah does not entail disbelief and there is a benefit in returning the salam, you return the salam to him, because he is a Muslim and there is a benefit. But if there is no benefit, or if not returning the salam would deter him from the bid'ah, then do not return the salam. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: If the people of innovation greet you, do you return the salam to them?
Answer:
The bid'ah (religious innovation) varies, my brother. If it is a bid'ah that entails disbelief, it is not permissible to greet him, nor... No, if he greets you, you return the salam to him, but you do not initiate the greeting. However, if the bid'ah does not entail disbelief and there is a benefit in returning the salam, you return the salam to him, because he is a Muslim and there is a benefit. But if there is no benefit, or if not returning the salam would deter him from the bid'ah, then do not return the salam. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، أول كتاب الجنائز — islamhouse.com (56:51)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.