When is the greeting prescribed and when is it not prescribed?

Al-Halabi : There is a point regarding our brother here, Shaykh, concerning the previous statement

The Shaykh : Regarding what?

The questioner : about the topic of the greeting

The Shaykh : Please go ahead

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, brother. I gave the greeting and you responded to me, saying, "I do not give the greeting in Islam." We know why you said that, and whoever listens to the recording might find this matter strange. So if you could clarify, may Allah reward you with good, because the listener does not know exactly what is in it; he does not know that there was a greeting, as if someone came in from outside and said, "As-salamu alaykum."

The Shaykh : The statement is sound; I just did not know if the recording was on.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : We listened to the recording to see. Because we agreed, or we learned, that this is Abu Ahmad.Abu Layla : The patching process now, if there is something to patch, Allah willing—laughs—

The questioner : Please, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : The praise is for Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. Before this session in which we gathered to answer questions that may appear to those sitting with us, one of our brothers began his question while sitting with us in the assembly by saying, "Peace be upon you." I replied, "And upon you be peace," and I did not know if such a greeting has a basis in Islam. As is clear to all present in the session, though it may be hidden from those absent, one of our brothers present drew our attention to the fact that we should comment on such a statement, lest it occur to some minds that were not present in the session something other than what I intended. We thanked him for this reminder. Therefore, I clarified that the greeting in Islam—although the Wise Lawgiver has commanded in more than one authentic hadith to increase in it, which He described by saying: As it came in Sahih Muslim from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And also his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the last hadith that Imam al-Bukhari narrated in his book al-Adab al-Mufrad, that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This hadith, and the one before it, and what is in their meaning, contain a strong exhortation to increase in offering the greeting to Muslims. The Salaf were extremely eager to implement this noble Prophetic command, as it came in the Muwatta of Imam Malik and others from Nafi', the freed slave of 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), that he used to say to his master Nafi': "Let us go to the market." Nafi' said: "And I knew that he had no need in the market, but he wanted to greet every person he met, to implement this great command And among the details of this command to spread the greeting were other sayings of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), for example, he said: It is known that the right of a Muslim over a Muslim, as it came in the authentic hadith, is five, and in a narration six, and among them was mentioned Many Muslims who are eager to apply the rulings of the Shari'ah maintain this right, which is offering the greeting when a Muslim or Muslims are met. However, many of them, when they part from one another, do not part with the greeting. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So if the one who enters now enters this assembly, he must say, "Peace be upon you." Then, if he leaves to attend to some need, he must say, "Peace be upon you." If he returns to the assembly, he must say, "Peace be upon you." All of this is to implement and apply this hadith This increasing in offering the greeting every time one enters the assembly is almost non-existent, if I do not say in all Islamic countries, or at least in most Islamic countries. And if he leaves, this is even more non-existent. So this hadith, "when he enters and when he leaves," is from the clarification of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of that general text The care of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his attention to spreading the greeting reached the point that he would offer the greeting to his companions while he was praying, as it came in the Sunan from the hadith of 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), that when he returned from Abyssinia, and he was among those who emigrated there, he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was praying and greeted him. He said: "So he did not return the greeting, and I was distressed by what was near and what was far." I pause here briefly to draw attention to the fact that it was prescribed in the early days of Islam not only for a Muslim to offer the greeting to the one praying, but also for the Muslim to return the greeting verbally while he is praying. And in reference to this fact, Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said, when he came from Abyssinia and hastened to greet the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and did not receive a verbal response from him in prayer, that the matter was great for him and he thought he had committed an error with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), because he had been far from him (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) due to his emigration. He expressed what was in his mind by saying, "So I was distressed by what was near and what was far." This is an allusion to the fact that he began to think and estimate, "What did I do? What error did I commit with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?" since he did not return the greeting. And it is known that Allah the Exalted said in the Qur'an: And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not return the greeting. And in such a case, they know that not returning it contains something of negligence and objection, so he said: "So I was distressed by what was near and what was far." Then what was in his mind disappeared when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the greeting and said to him: So this hadith was an answer to that question that occurred in the mind of Ibn Mas'ud when he said, or expressed it by saying: "So I was distressed by what was near and what was far." Because it was known to him that returning the greeting verbally by the one praying was customary and obligatory. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified to him that this customary ruling had a new ruling in Islam, which is that there is no speech in prayer. So the Muslim saying "Peace be upon you" to the one praying and the verbal response to it was considered by the Wise Lawgiver as speech, and this invalidates the prayer, as is known in other hadiths that we are not currently concerned with. The point is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) established the gesture of greeting in place of the verbal return of the greeting—for the one who is praying. And so it came in more than one hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) used to return the greeting with a gesture when his companions greeted him. This is the alternative to the verbal return of the greeting, as mentioned in the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud just now. So it came in a narration in the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud mentioned just now that when he did not return the greeting verbally, he gestured to him like this with his head. This is the first hadith in which the greeting is returned with a gesture. Another hadith like this is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Jabir ibn 'Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) on an errand for him. When he returned, he offered the greeting to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was praying, also with a gesture of his head. And clearer than that—this hadith was narrated by Muslim in his Sahih—is the hadith of Jabir. And clearer than that is the hadith of 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with them both): That the Prophet visited the Ansar in their mosque in Quba', and they flocked to him. So when they entered upon him, they found him standing praying, and they offered him the greeting while he was praying. Ibn 'Umar said: "So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would return the greeting with a gesture of his hand." One of the narrators of this hadith was asked: How did he gesture? He said: "He would place the palm of his hand toward the ground and the back of it toward the sky." The Muslim says "Peace be upon you" and he does this. The point is that offering the greeting to the one praying is from the clarification of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of that phrase Even the greeting on behalf of the one praying was not abolished; rather, the verbal return of the greeting by the one praying was abrogated, and the gesture of the hand took its place. That is from the completeness of spreading the greeting. If we know this fact, there is no room for any Muslim to say "And upon you be peace" as a greeting more than what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified in such detailed hadiths for his saying: "Spread the greeting among yourselves." For example: And this is a reality that must be noted, unlike what happened at the beginning of this session, because for the first time I heard this greeting which has no basis in Islam. And what I will mention now is very common and very much so, to the point that those who do it almost—I say and mean what I say—almost the saying of Allah applies to them, and it came regarding others: What is it? When the one who enters, completing the greeting includes shaking hands, as you know. He enters and says, "Peace be upon you, peace be upon you, peace be upon you, peace be upon you, peace be upon you..." like this, greetings equal to the number of people sitting in the assembly. Like this, it has no basis in the Sunnah. "And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings"—this is from the innovations in the religion. Because when the one who enters says "Peace be upon you" like this, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), when he entered the assembly, would offer one greeting—"And upon you be peace"—and sit where the assembly ended. And if it was facilitated with this one greeting to shake hands with each of the people sitting in the assembly, that is undoubtedly from the completeness of the greeting. And it came in some musnads or sunan the saying of one of the Companions, and I think it was Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him): "We never met the Messenger of Allah except that he shook our hands." If we know these positive facts and the negative facts, then we know that the one sitting in the assembly or in the mosque, if he wants to direct a question, it is not the way of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to say to the one being asked, "Peace be upon you," when he has already fulfilled the obligation when he entered the assembly and sat in it. And naturally, when he greets and directs the question, he does not want to turn his back because he wants to wait for the answer to the question. For this reason, it is not appropriate for such a greeting to occur again. So now, you begin your question by going directly to it.

The questioner : What is the ruling on offering the greeting from inside to the one who is praying and those who are praying?

The Shaykh : This is the principle

The questioner : The principle

The Shaykh : Yes, please go ahead.