What is the ruling on greeting with a hand gesture?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question: What is the ruling on greeting with a hand gesture?
Answer:
It is not permissible to greet with a gesture; rather, the Sunnah is to greet with words, both in initiating and responding. Greeting with a gesture is not permissible because it imitates some of the disbelievers in this, and because it is contrary to what Allah has prescribed.
However, if one gestures with his hand to the person being greeted to make him understand the greeting, because he is far away, while also speaking the greeting, there is no blame on him; for there is a report indicating this. Likewise, if the person being greeted is occupied with prayer, he responds with a gesture, as the Sunnah is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in this regard.
Answer:
It is not permissible to greet with a gesture; rather, the Sunnah is to greet with words, both in initiating and responding. Greeting with a gesture is not permissible because it imitates some of the disbelievers in this, and because it is contrary to what Allah has prescribed.
However, if one gestures with his hand to the person being greeted to make him understand the greeting, because he is far away, while also speaking the greeting, there is no blame on him; for there is a report indicating this. Likewise, if the person being greeted is occupied with prayer, he responds with a gesture, as the Sunnah is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in this regard.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.