“When Allah created Adam and breathed soul into him, he sneezed. He said: Praise be to Allah, by His permission. At this his Lord said to him: Your Lord has bestowed mercy on you. 0 Adam! Go to those angels sitting there and greet them. So Adam said: As-salamu Alaykum (peace be upon you). They responded to him. On you too the same and Allah's mercy (Wa Alaykum as-salam). Then he came back to his Lord. Allah said: It will be your greeting and the greeting of your offsprings. Allah (SWT) said having made His Hands closed: Select anyone of them. Adam said: I select the right hand and both the hands of my Lord are right and blessed. Then Allah spread it. There was Adam and his generation. Adam asked: 0 Lord! Who are these people? Allah said: They are your children. Every human being's life is written between his eyes. Among them was a man with the brightest face. For him was written only forty years of age. Adam said: 0 Lord! Who is this fellow? Allah said: This is your son Daud (David). His life span is written forty years. Adam said: 0 Lord! Increase his age. Allah said: This is what I have written down for him. He said: Then I give him sixty years of my age. Allah said: This is between you and him. Live in Paradise. He lived there as long as Allah wished. Then he was descended from it to earth. Adam was counting his age. Then the death angel came to him. Adam said to him: You have come earlier. For me, one thousand years have been written. The angel said: Yes, but out of them you have given sixty years to your son Daud. Adam denied that so his successors also denied. He forgot, so his successors also forgot. From that day, Allah ordered writing down and making witnesses (for pledges).- This is a sound Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)- reported by Ibn Abi Asim, Ibn Hibban and Hakim in his Mustadrak).
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So our greetings Muslims revolve around Assalaam (peace)- offering peace and making dua that Allah grants whoever we’re offering greetings much peace.

This is the fine and noble Etiquette of our Islamic culture.

With the ever changing customs and traditions of world civilizations, Muslims, of whatever nationality, regrettably started to refrain, or to be precise, started to abandon the noble and highly civilized greetings their religion prescribes- this is partially due to being exposed and dealing with many cultures that seem to be dominating and setting the up-to-date standards and social norms, and partially due to the fact that they do not feel quite proud of their identity anymore.

How about reversing the situation?!

We Muslims, are a nation that’s named after one primary element of its foundation, that is salam (or peace). Reviving this understanding and all derivatives of our main greetings (Assalamu alikum) or peace be upon you, would help us cling to our foremost identity as Muslims, followers of the religion of Islam (a name itself connoting the same meaning, peace, in addition to complete submissiveness (English equivalent of the Arabic root verb Salam) to the One and Only Lord and God, Allah (SWT).

Islamic greetings generally involve making dua to the person being greeted. How generous?!

So how about embracing our identity practically, and start using our Islamic greetings instead of those we copy from other traditions, such as Hello, Take care, Bye, Salute, Have a Good Day, Have a Nice Weekend and the like?!

We surely have generous and much refined equivalent to all these greetings listed above- and thus we’d be setting fresh new, even more refined, manners, and may be introduce new Islamic ones that suit our modern age and.

For example how about start getting used to saying the Salam greetings whenever you enter a gathering, answer the phone, start a conversation, or even in your email message.
That instead of a spiritless Hello.

And you may end your presence, physical, audio, or virtual using the same greeting. Or may be saying: “Stay Blessed”.

Also how about wishing your fellow Muslim a Jumaah Mubarak (blessed Friday) instead of vibrating the Western “have a Nice Weekend” wish?

When you come to think of it, it’s a Dua that the person you're talking to may have a blessed day, that is Friday, itself meritorious. You’re definitely being generous to him.

What else…

Oh yes, how about replacing this exasperating and probably envious 'Wow' when seeing something nice, with saying MashaAllah. It would definitely be more sensible, let a lone blissful, as it includes the name of Allah.

Think it over, by following the tips presented above, or at least some of them, you’ll be setting new refined standards. Try them out and you’ll see the social and spiritual impacts they will prove.

Fellow Muslims.. feel proud and revive your culture!

Wassalaam,
Maha Youssuf
maha@muslimtribune.org

Posted on December 25, 2011