The Sunnah of Giving Salaam - Abu Imran

Opening — The Khutbah of Need

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O people, fear your Lord who has created you from a single soul, and has created from it its spouse, and then spread many men and women from them. And fear Allah through whom you ask one another, and fear to break your ties of kinship. Indeed Allah is ever watchful over what you do.

O you who believe, fear Allah and say a saying that is right. If you do it, He will forgive you your sins, and improve your affairs. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a great success.

Indeed the best speech is the speech of Allah. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. The worst things are muhdathat — new things introduced into the religion. Every such religious muhdathat is a bid'ah, an innovation in the religion. Every bid'ah is a dalalah, a going astray. And every dalalah leads us to the Hellfire.

A Neglected Sunnah: Spreading the Salaam

Dear respected brothers and sisters, today I wanted to remind me and you of a neglected sunnah. And that sunnah is found in many ahadith of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. It is not neglected by most or by all Muslims — it is neglected by some Muslims — and I wanted to remind myself and you, so that you get the reward for reviving it. That sunnah is the sunnah of spreading the salaam.

As you know very well, the virtues of salaam are huge. The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said:

(Reported by al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad; also referenced in various collections on the merits of salaam)

As-Salaam is a name of Allah — which means the source of peace, the One who protects us — and He placed it upon the earth, so spread it amongst yourselves.

And when the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, commands us to do something, it means it is an obligation to do so. When he says do not do something, it is haram to do that thing, until we have dalil to prove otherwise. For that reason, Allah called salaam a tahiyyah — a greeting — مِن عِندِ اللَّهِ, from Allah, mubarakah tayyibah — full of barakah, full of goodness, and pure. And you can feel it: the more you spread it, the more barakah you feel. The less you say salaam, the less you feel brotherhood and sisterhood with one another.

The Quranic Command to Return the Greeting

That is why Allah made it obligatory. It is not left to us whether to reply or to say salaam. He said in Surah an-Nisa:

Which means: when you are greeted with a greeting, then greet with a greeting that is better than that greeting, or at least reply with a similar greeting. So if someone says as-salamu alaykum, we have to say wa alaykum as-salam.

I want to remind everyone: we have a special chapter in the Quran — a very long one — called an-Nisa, the Women. I don't know if in the Bible or the Torah they have a whole chapter called "the Women." People keep abusing the Muslims and accusing them of oppressing women — we have a whole chapter in the Quran called an-Nisa. We don't have a chapter called ar-Rijal, the Men. We have al-Mu'minoon, the Believers, but that includes the women. So let everyone think about that.

Spreading Salaam — Not Just Saying It

The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, used to practice spreading the salaam and used to teach his companions — the likes of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Zubair, Talha, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, and everyone else. He used to teach them to spread salaam — not just to say salaam, but to spread it, meaning to say it as many times as we can.

In one hadith, a companion said that he used to command them to do seven things, and one of them was:

He used to tell us, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, to spread the salaam. Spread — not just say — salaam. It is not enough merely to say it.

The Best of Islam

The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was asked: which Islam is the best? He said:

To give food to others, and to say salaam to those you know and those you don't know. Giving food to others is the sign of the people of taqwa, the sign of the believer. Allah described them this way in many ayat in the Quran.

And to say salaam only to the people you know — as it is practiced by many Muslims in many countries around the world — is a sign of the Day of Judgment. Most, if not all, signs of the Day of Judgment are bad things, they are not good things. And this is one of them. You see two, three, four, or five brothers together and you only say salaam to the one you know — that is very rude, and it is not from the sunnah. Because the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said the best Islam is to say salaam to everyone, especially if you know for sure they are Muslims.

Salaam — the Gateway to Jannah

The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said — pay attention, brothers and sisters, to this great hadith:

Spread the salaam. Feed others. Look after your ties of kinship — call them, text them, write to them, visit them, give them gifts; that applies both ways, but if they don't do it, you do it for Allah. And pray when people are asleep. If you do these things, you will enter Jannah in peace. Allahu Akbar!

He started with salaam and ended with Jannah. So salaam leads to Jannah. Salaam is the greeting of the people of Jannah:

Their greeting in it is salaam. And how great is the greeting of Islam! Allahu Akbar!

Some people say "hello," and we say as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Think about it, brothers and sisters. As-Salaam — peace, security. The greeting of Islam is peace. How can it be terrorism? It's a lie. Don't believe it.

Rahmatullah — rahma, the mercy of Allah. We don't say just "rahma" on its own — rahma doesn't stand alone in Arabic. Rahmatullah: the mercy of Allah — yes, that we want, that we need every second of our lives.

Wa barakatuh — barakat, not just baraka. Many types of baraka, many good things we don't even know of. This is a great greeting. How can we abandon it and feel shy to say it? Feel shy to explain it?

The Reward for Each Level of Salaam

Once a man came while the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was sitting with his companions, and said: as-salamu alaykum. The Prophet said: ten. Another came and said: as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. He said: twenty. Another came and said: as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. He said: thirty.

The Sahabah were curious — what is this ten, twenty, thirty? He, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, explained: these are the hasanat, the good deeds. Imagine walking down the street and by the time you reach your home you have earned 100 hasanat, simply because you said as-salamu alaykum to ten people. And on the Day of Judgment, everyone will see every tiny good deed and every tiny bad deed. So how is it that we can spend hours doing and saying things we don't even need, yet we cannot even say salaam sometimes — out of shyness, or thinking we are too busy?

As-Salaam is a name of Allah — spread it between yourselves.

Salaam and True Belief

Look at another hadith — the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said in Sahih Muslim:

You will never enter Jannah until you believe, and you will not truly believe until you love one another. To love Allah, to love the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and to love someone for the sake of Allah — that is the peak of iman. Then he said: shall I not guide you to something that, if you do it, will cause you to love one another? Spread salaam between yourselves.

He started with Jannah and finished with salaam. The other hadith, he started with salaam and finished with Jannah. They are connected, brothers and sisters. Brothers pass by one another and don't say salaam — they miss 10, 20, maybe 30 hasanat. Some even do worse: when someone says salaam, they don't reply properly.

Some say wa rahma — "whose rahma?" It is not connected to anything. It is not correct in Arabic and it is not from the sunnah. Rahmatullah — the mercy of Allah — that is correct. Similarly, jazakallah on its own in Arabic means "may Allah reward you" — we don't know good or bad. Because in Arabic, jazakallah alone can be said for an evildoer. You must add khayran — may Allah reward you with khayr, not with shar. Likewise, barakallah on its own is incomplete — barakallahu feek, may Allah put barakah in you, is the correct form.

Salaam is something that the Jews envy us for — the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said they envy you for salaam and for ameen. So if we don't have salaam, there is not much left for them to envy us for. Spread salaam.

The Scholars' Attention to Salaam

Some of the Sahabah — and I did not say all Sahabah, but some of them — through their ijtihad, used to initiate salaam first even to non-Muslims. They considered it correct for the ahl al-dhimmah — the people who live under the protection and responsibility of the Muslims. And this itself shows that Islam does not force everyone to become Muslim.

And many of the ulama have said: if a non-Muslim says to you as-salamu alaykum clearly, you must say wa alaykumu s-salam — because of the ayah: if you are greeted with a greeting, then greet with a better greeting, or at least return that greeting.

The issue of salaam is so important that when the scholars authored books of hadith, they included Kitab as-Salaam — the Book of Salaam — and Bab as-Salaam — the Chapter of Salaam — to show its importance. And we see and we feel that the more we spread salaam, the more love for the sake of Allah is spread.

Salaam was also used as a punishment when withheld. The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, used it as a form of ta'zir against some Sahabah who did not go with him on the expedition to Tabuk. For fifty days or so, no one said salaam to them, and if they said as-salamu alaykum, no one answered. It was a punishment. And you know yourselves — when you say salaam to someone and they do not answer, you get upset. Because it is not normal. For that reason, we must try and revive this great sunnah.

The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, told us: if you say salaam to someone and then a wall, or a tree, or something similar comes between you and him, say salaam again. That is what the Sahabah used to do. That man who had prayed incorrectly — he came, prayed, then came to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and said as-salamu alaykum. The Prophet replied his salaam and said: go back and pray, for you did not pray. He went, prayed, and then returned and again said as-salamu alaykum. And this happened three times. This shows they used to give salaam again even inside the masjid.

Not Too Busy for Salaam

When we sometimes see our brothers — and everything I say about brothers applies equally to sisters — we say salaam, then we see them again. Sometimes we feel lazy to say salaam again. But we don't feel lazy to talk about football, cricket, or all the other things that don't benefit us at all, for three hours.

Some of us even watch test cricket for five days. I'm not a very big expert on cricket, but I think it's called test cricket because it tests your patience — five days glued to the TV. If someone said, "We have an intensive course, five days," the response is: "No, no, we can't — we're busy." An intensive course to get close to Allah, to enter Jannah at the end of those five days — no. But test cricket, we can do that.

So when you meet some brothers and they say they are very busy — they don't answer your calls, they don't answer your texts, they don't answer your salaam — then we have to look at ourselves. I'm not saying all people do it; alhamdulillah we have many good brothers and sisters. But I am drawing attention to the fact that we sometimes don't have time for important things, yet we have time for silliness.

Our kids can talk for hours about some football team. They call them "us." We did this. Who are you? "We are Manchester United." The red devils? We have to discuss these issues in the khutbah because we don't have another opportunity to address them.

Some people support the football team of Egypt called "the Pharaohs." And Fir'awn is cursed in the Quran — one of the worst people ever to walk the earth — yet they are proud to carry that name. Brothers and sisters, if someone said that sport generally hasn't brought us much good, it would be true. We spend time watching these things, and when we say come to lectures, come to help one another, come to sacrifice — very often the response is: "We are busy." What busy? Doing what? We have washing machines, drying machines, cooking machines, iPads, everything — and we are still busy. We don't have any time.

Obedience and the Lesson of Uhud

We have to realize: if we cannot even do salaam, Allah will not grant us His help. I finish with the lesson of the Battle of Uhud.

In the Battle of Uhud, the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, assigned a group of archers to hold their position and not to leave it until he explicitly told them to do so. And they left it. They disobeyed once. And Allah said it in the Quran:

And you disobeyed after He showed you what you love. Those Sahabah — a group of them, not all — they used to obey the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, before Uhud and after Uhud, and Allah forgave them. But they got defeated on that day. And we disobey the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and then we think Allah will help us if we obey once. When the Sahabah obeyed 24/7 and disobeyed once, Allah withheld His victory from them. So we have to know that the issue of salaam is a very great issue — because Allah loves it, and what Allah loves, we should love. Allah made it important, so we should make it important.

Closing Reminder

Dear brothers and sisters — those of you who spend all day on social media, please do not waste your time. Use your time wisely. You don't know how long you have left. None of us do. Let us use every salaam we can give and receive to mend relationships. How many of our relationships are suffering because of the absence of salaam? It doesn't matter if the other brother turns away. It doesn't matter if the other sister turns away. It doesn't matter if your husband or wife turns away. You do it for Allah, and He will help you.

May Allah help all the Muslims — everywhere, not just in Sham, not just in Kashmir — by returning them to the deen. That is the greatest help. May Allah help all the Muslims by returning them to the correct deen: worshipping Allah, doing tawheed, respecting the sunnah, respecting the guidance of the salaf, and respecting the ulama of Islam — even if they make mistakes. They are not prophets; they make mistakes. But they are scholars, and they do not collectively agree upon dalalah.

And I seek forgiveness from Allah for myself and for you, and for all the believing men and believing women.