Common misconceptions – due to the misapplication of hadith There is common opinion that you should not greet non-Muslims with the salam. Or that you should only reply to them with ‘walaikum‘ not ‘walaikum asalam‘. This opinion is based on the hadith: Suhayl and Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be please with them) narrated that the Prophet (peace be on him) said: حَدَّثَنَا قُتَيْبَةُ بْنُ سَعِيدٍ، حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الْعَزِيزِ، – يَعْنِي الدَّرَاوَرْدِيَّ – عَنْ سُهَيْلٍ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏ “‏ لاَ تَبْدَءُوا الْيَهُودَ وَلاَ النَّصَارَى بِالسَّلاَمِ فَإِذَا لَقِيتُمْ أَحَدَهُمْ فِي طَرِيقٍ فَاضْطَرُّوهُ إِلَى أَضْيَقِهِ ‏” ‘Do not greet the Jews and the Christian’s before they greet you, and when you meet any of them on the road force him to go to the narrowest part of it’ [Sahih Muslim 2167a -Book 39, Hadith 16] This hadith has many issues which make it unreliable, which have been examined in the paper of Dr Hakem Al-Mutairi (Al-I’lam A Study of the Hadith: Do not initiate the Salam to the Mushrikeen), who concluded that the hadith is related to a particular occasion when the Prophet (peace be upon him) was on his way to fight the Jews who had betrayed them in the Battle of Ditch. It is not a hadith from which one can derive general rulings for all times. Its scope is limited to a situation of war when one might encounter the enemy en route. We have a detailed examination of this hadith in our blog. If we come across an ayah or a hadith which goes against the grain of Islam, we need to delve deeper and discover why that is the case. The context is always at the core of any ruling. In this hadith there are problems with the … Continue reading Can you say ‘salam’ to non-Muslims? Unpicking the confusion that the salam is exclusively for Muslims.