If a man from the People of the Book greets us with the Islamic greeting and says, "Peace be upon you," how do we respond to him?
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The Shaykh : In the previous lesson, we recited for you the hadith of Aisha regarding her story with the Jews who greeted the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with a poisoned phrase, namely their saying: "Death be upon you". In it, the Messenger (peace be upon him) returned the greeting to them with the same phrase: that is, he said: . As for Aisha, she went further than that, cursing them and pouring the anger of Allah upon them.
It remains for us to mention a legal ruling, after we mentioned in the previous lesson that it is not permissible to transgress against the dhimmis (protected non-Muslims) in the manner Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) did. At the same time, as we mentioned, it is not permissible to be too familiar with them in a way that contradicts the Shari'ah. We mentioned from this the prohibition by the Messenger (peace be upon him) of initiating the greeting to them.
If the matter is thus, then it means that the Muslim, in his dealings with the dhimmis, must conduct himself with them within the limits of the Shari'ah, not within the limits of his own private logic or personal reasoning.
From this, we say:
If a man from the People of the Book greets us with this Islamic greeting and says to us, "Peace be upon you," what do we say? Some people may understand from this hadith and what is similar to it that returning the greeting to the dhimmi should be: "And upon you" only. Is that the case? There is a detail in this issue:
If we look at another hadith reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he said:Sunan Abi Dawud 5206Sahih (Al-Albani) "And upon you", is appropriate and its place is when he twists his tongue with the greeting, when he says: "Death be upon you." One might understand from it the lawful greeting, and one might understand from it the Jewish greeting. But if his greeting is explicit, clear, and evident, as some Christians do today, for example, those who have mixed with Muslims and lived alongside them and picked up their greeting from them, and one of them says "Peace be upon you" clearly, do we say "And upon you," or do we say as they said, "And upon you, peace"?
If we first look at the text of the Noble Qur'an:[An-Nisa 4:86] at least, and secondly to the hadith we mentioned earlier, where one of them says: "Death be upon you" and you say "And upon you," we take from this verse and this hadith that if the dhimmi's greeting is correct, clear, and explicit, we return it to him likewise, explicitly, clearly, and evidently.
But if it is a poisoned greeting, as we said, then we understand it and alert him that we are not oblivious. He says: "And upon you." He might say, "My brother, why do you say it that way? I said to you, 'Peace be upon you'!" We say, "Done, we have returned it to you, whether you said 'Peace be upon you' truly or said it in a poisoned manner." This is what I wanted to mention on the occasion of the hadith of the previous lesson.
And upon you
وعليكمIt remains for us to mention a legal ruling, after we mentioned in the previous lesson that it is not permissible to transgress against the dhimmis (protected non-Muslims) in the manner Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) did. At the same time, as we mentioned, it is not permissible to be too familiar with them in a way that contradicts the Shari'ah. We mentioned from this the prohibition by the Messenger (peace be upon him) of initiating the greeting to them.
If the matter is thus, then it means that the Muslim, in his dealings with the dhimmis, must conduct himself with them within the limits of the Shari'ah, not within the limits of his own private logic or personal reasoning.
From this, we say:
If a man from the People of the Book greets us with this Islamic greeting and says to us, "Peace be upon you," what do we say? Some people may understand from this hadith and what is similar to it that returning the greeting to the dhimmi should be: "And upon you" only. Is that the case? There is a detail in this issue:
If we look at another hadith reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he said:
When one of the Jews greets you saying: Death may come upon you, reply: The same to you.
إن اليهود إذا سلّم أحدهم فإنه يقول : السام عليكم ، فقولوا : وعليكمIf we first look at the text of the Noble Qur'an:
And when you are greeted with a greeting, greet [in return] with one better than it or [at least] return it
وإذا حييتم بتحية فحيوا بأحسن منها أو ردوهاBut if it is a poisoned greeting, as we said, then we understand it and alert him that we are not oblivious. He says: "And upon you." He might say, "My brother, why do you say it that way? I said to you, 'Peace be upon you'!" We say, "Done, we have returned it to you, whether you said 'Peace be upon you' truly or said it in a poisoned manner." This is what I wanted to mention on the occasion of the hadith of the previous lesson.