Returning the greeting to a People of the Book.

The questioner : A member of the People of the Book raised a topic of their scripture, presenting it to a Muslim. The Muslim responded to him with something the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not prescribe. The Messenger said: He said: "And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah." Does the one who said this phrase commit a sin?

The Shaykh : How could he commit a sin when he did well?

The questioner : Regarding the People of the Book?

The Shaykh : Yes, because the hadith you mentioned, this hadith has two interpretations, one of which is intended and the other is not. The hadith has a context. This is a legal ruling explained by a legal cause. This legal cause is So here we say: If the person from the People of the Book says what the Jews used to say, "Al-sam 'alaykum" (death upon you), meaning they mumble the word and deceive with it, then the Muslim should be alert and attentive, not careless, limiting his response to "And upon you." However, if the reality is not so, as is observed today, have you ever heard a Christian from these Christians, when he enters a gathering with a Muslim or more, say "Al-sam 'alaykum" or say what Muslims say? In that case, the previous hadith does not apply, because the previous hadith was accompanied by a cause, which is that one of them says "Al-sam 'alaykum." Here, the saying of our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, applies: This is a Qur'anic text that falsehood does not approach from before or behind, and it is a general, comprehensive text that includes the Muslim and the disbeliever. So if they greet us, we must at least return the greeting with the same, except in one case which the Messenger (peace be upon him) explained to us in the previous hadith: if he twists his tongue with the greeting, we say to him: We are alert to you, we are not unaware of your booby-trapped response, so we say: "And upon you." If he meant the legal greeting, we have returned it to him. If he meant death, as the hadith itself says, we have returned his supplication of death upon us, death upon him. Therefore, it came in a hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that a Jew entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "Al-sam 'alaykum." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: As for Lady Aisha, from behind the screen, she flew into a rage and said: "And upon you be death, curse, and anger, brothers of the apes and pigs." When the Jew left, he (peace be upon him) said to her: She said: O Messenger of Allah, did you not hear what he said? He said: Meaning, I was alert and did not transgress against him, based on the saying of Allah, this is the meaning of the Messenger's words, explaining his words: And I said: "And upon you." As for "And upon you be death, curse," he did not say the greeting explicitly; he twisted his tongue with it, so I said: "And upon you." If he meant this bad meaning, I have returned it to him. If he meant the Islamic meaning, then I answered him, and I did not commit a sin by not returning the greeting. In short, the verse is general, so it is from the perfection of the Islamic Shari'ah and from the equity we were commanded in the noble verse: This is from equity, which is justice: that if a person from the People of the Book says in clear Arabic: "As-salamu 'alaykum," we say: "Wa 'alaykum as-salam." But if he says: "Al-sam 'alaykum," we say: "Wa 'alaykum." And this is the answer to the previous question.

The questioner : If you please, Shaykh, a question. We came across a report whose authenticity we do not know, which is that Ibn 'Umar passed by a person from the People of the Book, and he greeted Ibn 'Umar, saying: "And upon you be peace, the mercy of Allah, and His blessings." It was said to him: "This is a person from the People of the Book." He said to him: "Return my greeting to me." I do not know what your eminence's comment on this is.

The Shaykh : Repeat the narration of the report so that I may remember.

The questioner : The narration says: Ibn 'Umar greeted a person from the People of the Book. The person from the People of the Book greeted Ibn 'Umar.

The Shaykh : No, that is what I wanted to verify with you. It is not a second narration that Ibn 'Umar greeted, so he said to him: "Return my greeting to me," not the other way around.

The questioner : Meaning, we do not initiate the greeting to them.

The Shaykh : Yes, because this is the explicit saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): This is another ruling; the discussion just now was about the response. As for initiating the greeting to non-Muslims, this is not permissible. The story of Ibn 'Umar is that he threw the greeting at a man he thought was a Muslim. And from the Islamic etiquettes is that you greet whom you know and whom you do not know. Soon it became clear to him that he was not a Muslim, so he said: "Return my greeting to me." Ibn 'Umar was the one who initiated, not the one who responded.