Explaining the Etiquette of Greeting and the Virtue of Spreading It

The Shaykh : Is greeting your brother a charity? Yes, indeed, it is a charity for you, and you receive ten good deeds for it. When you meet your brother and say "As-salamu alaykum," you receive ten good deeds for that. And with great regret, we find that many Muslims today meet each other but do not greet one another. Sometimes they are students of knowledge; a student meets his fellow student and does not greet him, or he meets any one of the Muslims and does not greet him. This is contrary to the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to greet even the children, even though the right to initiate the greeting is upon us, not upon him (peace and blessings be upon him). But he is the one who initiates the greeting, so he said (peace and blessings be upon him): .
Now, suppose a noble man stood at the door of this mosque and said: "Every person who greets his brother, I will give him a dirham, just one dirham." Would you leave off the greeting? No, absolutely not. Even if you forgot to greet, you would go back and greet. You do not leave off the greeting for what? For that dirham? That dirham might fall from you and be lost, or it might burn, or it might tear. But the one who greets his brother is given by the Most Noble of the Noble ones ten good deeds, not one dirham. Ten good deeds, ten good deeds that remain. A person finds them on the Day of Resurrection when he is in the greatest need of them. Allah is the Greatest! And we neglect many good deeds. When Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him both) was informed of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . He said (may Allah be pleased with him): . Then he was not seen after that except following a funeral (may Allah be pleased with him). Such are those who seize upon these virtues and these rewards. And how do you greet your brother? You say: "As-salamu alaykum," and he returns the greeting to you.
If you said "Marhaban wa ahlan" (Welcome) to so-and-so's father, you have not greeted him; you have not greeted him, and you do not fall under the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): because the hadith is and it did not say "the one who initiates the greeting."
"Ahlan wa sahlan" (Welcome), "Marhaban" (Welcome), and "Hayyak Allah" (May Allah welcome you)—all of these are greetings, but they are not the Islamic greeting (salam).
Say: "As-salamu alaykum," then greet him with whatever you wish. For this reason, in the hadith of the Night Journey, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he passed by the prophets he passed by, would greet them. And in the hadith: . When he passed by Adam, Adam said: . And when he passed by Ibrahim, he said: . And when he passed by the others, they used to say: . The important thing is that the hadith contains: . So it is known from this that the words "Marhaban" (Welcome), "Ahlan" (Welcome), and "How are you?" are not, are not the Islamic greeting (salam).
And it is amazing that we hear on the telephone, when the phone rings or the phone rings, you pick up the receiver, and what do you say? "Hello, what is this? Hello, hello." In English, it is "Hello," or in French, "Hello." So, we have erred in saying "Hello" in two ways: The first way is that we left off saying "As-salamu alaykum," and the second way is that we used a language other than Arabic. And the person whom Allah has blessed with the Arabic language should not speak in any other language except out of necessity. 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) used to strike the one who spoke in a language other than Arabic except out of necessity. So what do I say when I pick up the receiver? I say: "As-salamu alaykum." To earn ten good deeds and to accustom others to this action. Now, in the response, what do I say? We said: You say "Wa alaykum as-salam" (And upon you peace). It is permissible for you to say "Wa alaykum as-salam" in the plural. As for "Wa alayka as-salam" (And upon you peace), the matter is clear in it, because the one who greeted you is one person, and the letter "kaf" is a letter of address to one person.
But if you pluralize it and say "Wa alaykum as-salam" (And upon you all peace), the scholars said: The reason for that is that the person returns the greeting to the Muslim and the angels with him. Now, if you said when he greeted you: "Ahlan wa marhaban" (Welcome) and "Sahlan" (Welcome) and "Hayyak Allah" (May Allah welcome you), "O Abu So-and-so, may Allah welcome you, you have the most noble hospitality with us, please, this food and drink and tea and coffee and everything." Did you return the greeting? Be careful, my brothers, he put everything for him, welcomed him, and his face lit up for him, and he was pleased with his presence. Did he return the greeting? No, he did not return the greeting until he says "Wa alaykum as-salam" (And upon you peace). "Wa alaykum as-salam" does not have to be said with the "waw" (and); "wa alayka" is not necessary. If he says "Wa alaykum as-salam," that is sufficient.
So we say: Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, has made for His servants acts of worship that they volunteer in, by which they complete the obligatory acts. Now.