1. Greeting With Peace 

This virtue is derived from Allah’s name “The Peace”(As-Salam)

Being characterized by this virtue involves refraining from harming others with our words or actions and never even bearing any evil in our hearts. Instead, we try to be the cause of people’s happiness and tranquility. Is it that simple? Yes. We can spread joy by keeping our hearts free of envy, grudge, or vanity and by greeting people gracefully, whether we know them or not. Haven’t we all met, at one time or another, people who looked so pleased to see us that they made us feel we are the dearest to them? No matter how despondent we might be, meeting such a person alleviates our pain in seconds. We can do the same by following Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ way of greeting people. He was the most distinguished in spreading peace and serenity with his kind greetings, making the young and the old, friends and strangers, men and women feel equally cherished.

Definition

To greet someone with peace means we approach them with a smiling face and address them with kind words that make them feel favored and treasured. The real meaning of greeting with peace is to make people we encounter feel peaceful and safe; to make them be sure we do not cheat them, betray them, or backbite them; and reassure them that we are always ready for reconciliation and harmony. Such a greeting would certainly overcome any tension or ill will.
Allah says: ﴾When a (courteous) greeting is offered to you, meet it with a greeting still more courteous, or (at least) of equal courtesy. Allah takes careful account of all things. ﴿1

Explanation

Greeting with peace is an indirect way of expressing a state of goodwill and harmony between the one who is greeting and the one who is greeting back. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: ((You will not enter Heaven until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I tell you something which, if you do, you will love one another? Promote greetings amongst yourselves))3. The Prophet teaches us here one of the essential keys to spreading love among people, which is “greeting with peace.” This virtue indicates nobility, especially when we enter a decent place and find that we all share a code of respect even if we do not know one another. When someone asked Prophet Muhammad ﷺ “Which act in Islam is the best?” he replied, ((To feed the poor and greet those whom you know and those whom you do not know))4

Greeting with peace can indeed be the inception of affection and long- living friendships among humans, and the more we greet with peace, the more benevolence and compassion there will be in the world. Hence, we can learn from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who was distinguished for his greetings, which brought people closer and closer to him.

We know about Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that he approached others with such a smiling and friendly face that the greeted would feel he was the closest to Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ heart.

Another characteristic of his greeting is that he was the last to pull out his hand from a handshake.
•Greeting with peace is, therefore, the heart of Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ Hadith: ((Every good deed is charity))5.

•A smile has a marvelous effect on the hearts, which explains Prophet Muhammad’s advice to us when he said: ((Do not underestimate any good deed, even meeting your brother with a friendly face))8.

•We get rewarded by Allah for the amount and quality of our greetings as we learned from “Imran bin Husayn’s” story. ((A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘Peace be upon you!’ He then sat down. The Prophet ﷺ responded to his salutation and said, [He will have] Ten (rewards). Another man came and said, ‘Peace and Allah's mercy be upon you!’ He responded and said, [He will have] Twenty (rewards). A third man came and said, ‘Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings!’ Prophet ﷺ responded to him and said, [He will have] Thirty (rewards) ))9

All this tells us that we should train ourselves to show our kindness by approaching others with sincere hearts and words.

Sometimes we meet people whom we do not like. Yet we need to try hard not to aggravate any hostility with them because our Islamic principles refrain us from abandoning our brothers or neglecting them. The devil, however, whispers to us that keeping this habit of warm salutation could mean that we are not being sincere or that smiling to an enemy is an act of hypocrisy. The truth is that we do not have to become intimate friends with our opponents; we just need to meet them with a genial face. Our teacher, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, used to warmly greet his enemies and haters in the hope of softening their hearts, and so can we.

•When Prophet Muhammad ﷺ passed by a group of children, he would greet them, and when he met a group of women, he would greet and advise them.
•We learned from him that riders greet pedestrians; pedestrians greet those sitting; the bigger group greets the smaller group, and the younger greets the older.
•We learned from him to greet upon arriving and when leaving a place. When he entered his home, he greeted his family in voice that could reach the awake but not awaken the asleep.

About this, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: ((The most beloved people to Allah are those who are most beneficial to people. The most beloved deed to Allah is to make a Muslim happy, or to remove one of his troubles, or to forgive his debt, or to feed his hunger))17.

We learned from Quran that we should respond to greetings with even better greetings, and we learned from Prophet Muhammad ﷺ invaluable details about how and when to greet others. In short, we learned that greeting with peace is the fastest road to people’s hearts and the great beginnings of successful relationships. This virtue is undoubtedly rewarded in our first life and the hereafter.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ declared this fact when he said: ((Whoever meets with his Muslim brother in a way that pleases him, Allah will please him on the Day of Judgment))18.

It would be beautiful to teach our children how to drop every activity they are doing and rush to their parents to greet them with peace when they come back home from a trip or work. It would be equally wonderful to teach our children to show the same warmth to their grandparents and relatives. Growing up with this virtue will make them such distinguished adults in their future, whether in their families or in their society.

If we get used, since a young age, to greeting with peace according to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, we will gain the blessing of Allah and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, as well as the love of the people around us. In addition, we will retain pure hearts and souls that lead to a balanced and joyous world.




Sources
1. Surah An-Nisa : 86.
3. Muslim 54.
4. Sahih Al-Bukhari 28.
5. Sahih Al-Bukhari 602.
8. Sahih Muslim 2626.
17. Ibn Al Mubarak 684.
18. At-Tabarani 1178.


ADAPTED FROM:  Revive Your Heart with 52 Prophetic Ethics