A note from the Shaykh regarding the best way to respond to the greeting if it is complete by saying: "And upon you be peace, and Allah's mercy and blessings," and adding: "and His forgiveness."
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The Shaykh : Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.
The student: And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings
The Shaykh : For some reason, I greeted you with the full greeting, saying: "Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings," but I did not hear you respond with anything other than the same. My hope was to hear you respond with something better, but occasionally I heard someone here add: "and His forgiveness." A discussion took place today between me and some of the students; one of them called me, and this conversation arose on the occasion of his greeting me.
I felt that he had read a critique by some of them of the hadith I mentioned in some volumes of *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah* (The Collection of Authentic Hadiths), which states that the Companions, when they greeted the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he would add:. Some of them criticized this hadith and held that it is weak. I did not want to get into this point with him, which is a matter of disagreement, namely: is the hadith authentic or not? So I said to him: What do you have to do with the hadith now? The Qur'an is sufficient for you. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) says, as you all know: [An-Nisa 4:86] I said to thisThe questioner : Is it permissible for the one initiating the greeting to say initially: "Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings"? He answered affirmatively. I said: Then what is the best response mentioned in the previous verse? I was surprised by his hesitation and stammering, because the verse is very clear: [An-Nisa 4:86] The response is to say the greeting that I said, and he responds in kind. As for the better response, it is to add to it, even if it is just the word "and blessings." I said: My brother, why this hesitation? This is a text from the Noble Qur'an in which no two Muslims differ, and it is explicit that there are two responses for the one who initiates the greeting: the first response is to respond in kind, and the other response is to respond with something better. So if I say to you: "Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings," and you repeat this greeting to me, you have responded in kind. But if you want to elevate the response and improve it with the better response as mentioned in the previous verse, do you not add to what I said? After some daze and discussion, he said: It seems that the matter is so. I do not know why we hesitate even in applying an explicit Qur'anic text that does not accept figurative interpretation?
And if a hadith comes that matches the text of the Qur'an, if this hadith did not exist at all, we would not lose the legal ruling that the Qur'an explicitly stated. So why do we stop at this hadith and say: Is it authentic or weak?
If the intention is purely scientific research in hadith, there is no harm. But if the intention is not to act upon the jurisprudence contained in this hadith, the content of this hadith is contained in the Noble verse itself. Therefore, I say to you: You should spread knowledge, not only what is a matter of disagreement between the people of the Sunnah and the people of innovation, and we are fanatical for the Sunnah against the people of innovation, and we do not speak except about these issues. Meanwhile, there is a very wide field of jurisprudence derived from the Book, let alone the jurisprudence derived from the Sunnah. This jurisprudence is explicit; it came from the Salaf. The end of the greeting: "and blessings." This is correct, but some of them misunderstood these reports and thought that it is not permissible even in the response. The end of the greeting in the initiation: "Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings." It is not permissible to add here, because the addition did not come in the Book or the Sunnah. But if the initiator came with the complete greeting, we must add to it in order to implement the previous Qur'anic text and the hadith that agrees with it. This is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers.
And now we listen to your questions, and I earnestly hope that they are not repetitive, because a repeated thing becomes boring, distasteful, and undesirable. For example, a person keeps eating honey and gets tired of it and bored of it. Therefore, we ask that the questions contain some need and novelty, not that they be repetitive. And now we begin first with the right, then the right, because it is a Prophetic Sunnah, then the closest, then the closest, because people say: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: "The closest are the most deserving of kindness". Some people say: Why did he sayThe Shaykh :"Because people say: The closest are the most deserving of kindness", and not: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: The closest are the most deserving of kindness?
Because this is one of the common illusions. This text does not exist in the Qur'an. Some people imagine that one of the verses of the Qur'an is: "The closest are the most deserving of kindness." This is not Qur'anic, but it is a meaning acceptable in the Shari'ah. So we begin with the closest, then the closest, for what we mentioned, starting with the right, then the right, because the Sunnah, as the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) says: And among the matters is what we are in at this hour.
The student: And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings
The Shaykh : For some reason, I greeted you with the full greeting, saying: "Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings," but I did not hear you respond with anything other than the same. My hope was to hear you respond with something better, but occasionally I heard someone here add: "and His forgiveness." A discussion took place today between me and some of the students; one of them called me, and this conversation arose on the occasion of his greeting me.
I felt that he had read a critique by some of them of the hadith I mentioned in some volumes of *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah* (The Collection of Authentic Hadiths), which states that the Companions, when they greeted the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he would add:
and His forgiveness
ومغفرتهAnd 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 ردوهاgreet [in return] with one better than it or [at least] return it [in a like manner]
فحيوا بأحسن منها أو ردوهاAnd if a hadith comes that matches the text of the Qur'an, if this hadith did not exist at all, we would not lose the legal ruling that the Qur'an explicitly stated. So why do we stop at this hadith and say: Is it authentic or weak?
If the intention is purely scientific research in hadith, there is no harm. But if the intention is not to act upon the jurisprudence contained in this hadith, the content of this hadith is contained in the Noble verse itself. Therefore, I say to you: You should spread knowledge, not only what is a matter of disagreement between the people of the Sunnah and the people of innovation, and we are fanatical for the Sunnah against the people of innovation, and we do not speak except about these issues. Meanwhile, there is a very wide field of jurisprudence derived from the Book, let alone the jurisprudence derived from the Sunnah. This jurisprudence is explicit; it came from the Salaf. The end of the greeting: "and blessings." This is correct, but some of them misunderstood these reports and thought that it is not permissible even in the response. The end of the greeting in the initiation: "Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings." It is not permissible to add here, because the addition did not come in the Book or the Sunnah. But if the initiator came with the complete greeting, we must add to it in order to implement the previous Qur'anic text and the hadith that agrees with it. This is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers.
And now we listen to your questions, and I earnestly hope that they are not repetitive, because a repeated thing becomes boring, distasteful, and undesirable. For example, a person keeps eating honey and gets tired of it and bored of it. Therefore, we ask that the questions contain some need and novelty, not that they be repetitive. And now we begin first with the right, then the right, because it is a Prophetic Sunnah, then the closest, then the closest, because people say: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: "The closest are the most deserving of kindness". Some people say: Why did he sayThe Shaykh :"Because people say: The closest are the most deserving of kindness", and not: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: The closest are the most deserving of kindness?
Because this is one of the common illusions. This text does not exist in the Qur'an. Some people imagine that one of the verses of the Qur'an is: "The closest are the most deserving of kindness." This is not Qur'anic, but it is a meaning acceptable in the Shari'ah. So we begin with the closest, then the closest, for what we mentioned, starting with the right, then the right, because the Sunnah, as the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) says: