Continuation of the discussion on the previous hadith, and clarification of some guidelines regarding the treatment of disbelievers from among the People of the Book and others.

The Shaykh : In the previous lesson, we recited to you the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) regarding her story with the Jews who greeted the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with a poisoned phrase, which was their saying: "As-sam 'alaykum" (Death be upon you). In it, the Messenger (peace be upon him) returned the greeting to them with the same, meaning he said: . As for Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), she went beyond that by cursing them and invoking the anger of Allah upon them.
It remains for us to remind you of 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, we also said that it is not permissible to be soft with them in a way that involves contradicting them regarding 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 conduct with the dhimmis, must deal with them within the limits of the Shari'ah, not within the limits of personal logic or personal intellect. From here we say: If a man from the People of the Book greets us with this Islamic greeting and says to us: "As-salamu 'alaykum" (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 a dhimmi should be only "Wa 'alaykum" (And upon you); is that the case? The matter has details. If we look at another hadith reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he said: .
If we look at this hadith, we find that it contains a ruling with a stated cause, which is: . This clarifies that our returning to them with this shortened phrase: is only in its place and position when he twists his tongue with the greeting, when he says: "As-sam 'alaykum." One might understand from it the Shari'ah 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, who have mixed with Muslims, lived among them, and picked up their greeting from them, so one of them says: "As-salamu 'alaykum" clearly, do we say: "Wa 'alaykum"? Or do we say as they said: "Wa 'alaykum as-salam" (And upon you peace)?
If we first look at the text of the Noble Qur'an: at least, and secondly look at the hadith I mentioned earlier: "If one of them says: As-sam 'alaykum, then say: Wa 'alaykum"; we take from the verse and this hadith that: If the greeting of the dhimmi is explicit, clear, and evident, we return it to him likewise explicit, clear, and evident. But if it is a poisoned greeting as we said, then at that time... and we alert him that we are not ignorant, so we say to him: "Wa 'alaykum." He might say, "My brother, why are you saying that to me? I said to you: As-salamu 'alaykum." I say: Our return to you is the same whether you truly said: As-salamu 'alaykum, or you said it with a poison! This is what I wanted to mention on the occasion of the hadith of the previous lesson.