What is the ruling of greeting a non-Muslim?

Från: Umm-Firdaus91 (Ursprungligt meddelande) Skickat: 2007-03-27 05:32
What is the ruling of greeting a non-Muslim?
Author : Shaykh Saalih al-Uthaimeen
Source : Fataawa al-Aqeedah Shaykh Uthaimeen
Translated By : Tawfeeq aboo Zaynab
Produced By: Daarul Hadeeth wal Athar

Question: What is the ruling of greeting a non-Muslim?

Answer: The initiation of the salaams to the non-Muslim is Muharram (forbidden) and impermissible. The Prophet (sallallaahuAalaihiWassallam) said: “Don’t initiate the Salaam’s (the greeting) with the Jews and the Christians first and when you meet them on the road, force them to go to the narrowest part of it” [Reported by Muslim from the Hadeeth of abee Hurayrah]

But if they greet you then it is incumbent upon you to return the greeting to them in general (based on) the statement of Allaah Ta’la

When you are greeted with a greeting, greet in return with what is better than it, Or (at least) return it equally.Suratun-nisa: 86

And the Jews use to greet the Prophet (sallallaahuAalaihiWassallam) saying “May As-saam be upon you O Muhammad” (i.e.) meaning death, (they were actually) invoking death upon Rasoolilaah –(sallallaahuAalaihiWassallam), therefore the Prophet said,surely the Jews say death be upon you, so if they greet you with that then say you all, "wa ‘alaykum" (i.e. to you).

And concerning his (saying) “to you” it is evident that if they were to say explicity "As-salaamu Alaykum" then, to them is the returning of the greeting(from us); just as they say (to us), we say the same to them.
And some of the people of knowledge said concerning this issue, If indeed the Jews, Christians and other than them from the non-Muslims say the greeting clearly (then) it is permissible for us to say “Alaykumus-salaaam”.

And it is also not permissible to initiate with greeting [to them] like "Ahlan WA Sahlan" (i.e. welcome) or that which resembles it, since it indicates that one is honoring them and aggrandizing them. But if they say to us the above greeting then indeed we return the same greeting which they said to us, since Islaam came with justice and (we) give everyone their just right.

And it is known that the Muslims have a high status and position with Allaah, therefore it not necessary to lower ourselves to other than the Muslims by initiating the greeting to them with the Salaams, so we say in conclusion concerning the answer, It is not permissible to initiate the Salaams to a non-muslim since the Prophet (sallallaahuAalaihiWassallam) forbade us from that, and in this there is a form of degradation of the Muslims. When initiating [the Salaams] it enhances power of the non-muslim whereas the muslim has a higher [position than the non-muslim] with Allaah the almighty therefore it is not necessary to degrade oneself in this affair.

As for when they give us the Salaams then we return the similar greeting to them. Also it is not permissible to initiate with them the greeting the likes of "Ahlan wa sahlan wa marhaban" [welcoming them] and that which is similar to that.


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