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As-salamu alaykum

As-salamu alaykum (, ), also written salamun alaykum and typically rendered in English as salam alaykum, is a greeting in Arabic that means 'Peace be upon you'. The word (, meaning 'peace') has become a religious salutation for Muslims worldwide when greeting each other, though its use as a greeting predates Islam, and is also common among Arabic speakers of other religions (such as Arab Christians and Mizrahi Jews), and speakers of languages with Arabic loanwords, such as the use of salaam by Indian Christians who speak Hindi-Urdu in the northern Indian subcontinent.

In colloquial speech, often the shortened form is used to greet a person, and it has come to be used as the general salutation in other languages as well.

The typical response to the greeting is ( , 'and peace be upon you'). In the Quranic period one repeated as-salamu alaykum, but the inverted response is attested in Arabic not long after its appearance in Hebrew. The phrase may also be expanded to ( , 'Peace be upon you, as well as the mercy of God and His blessings').

The use of salām as an Arabic greeting dates at least to Laqit bin Yamar al-Ayadi (6th century), and cognates in older Semitic languages—Aramaic () and Hebrew ( )—can be traced back to the Old Testament period.

Pronunciation

The phrase is normally pronounced according to local dialects of speakers and is very often shortened. For example, in Egypt, the phrase and its response are pronounced and .

Grammatical variants

The expression commonly uses the second person plural masculine, even when used to address one person. It may be modified by choosing the appropriate enclitic pronoun to address a person in the masculine and feminine singular form, the dual form, or the feminine plural form. The conjugations are as follows (note: according to the standard pronunciation rules of Classical Arabic, the last short vowel in each word is not pronounced in pausa):

A third-person variant, ʿalayhi as-salām, "peace be upon him", is often used by Muslims for prophets other than Muhammad and other holy personalities, such as angels.

In Islam

According to Islamic tradition, the origin of the greeting "Peace be upon you" dates back to the first human, Adam:

Abu Huraira reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Allah said: Go and greet with peace these groups of assembled angels and listen to how they greet you, for this will be the greeting among your progeny. Adam said: Peace be upon you. The angels said: Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah. Thus, they added the mercy of Allah"

The final Prophet said, "None of you will enter paradise until you believe and you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I not tell you about something which, if you do it, you will love one another? Spread salaam amongst yourselves."

It is also stated that one should give the Salam greeting upon entering a house. This is based upon a verse of the Quran:

The phrase appears a total of 7 times in the Quran, each time as salamun Ê¿alaykum (). In Classical Arabic, used in the Qur'an and early Hadith manuscripts, the phrase is spelled as . In Rasm, it is written as .

Other variants, such as salamun ʿalā (), or the term salam () alone is also mentioned in several other Ayahs of the Qur'an.

Usage by non-Arabic speakers

  • Cognate Semitic language parallels include the Aramaic/Classical Syriac Å¡lāmā Ê¿alḵōn (ܫܠܵܡܵܐ ܥܲܠܟ݂ܘܿܢ), and the Hebrew Shalom aleichem ( shālôm Ê»alêḵem).
  • In Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, Salâm () is used alone more frequently, with occasional use of Salam-o aleykom and the more common beh salâmat (), meaning "[go] with peace". Goodbye is supplanted by a Khudâ hâfez (), meaning "with the protection of God".
  • In Albania and Kosovo a diminutive form in the Albanian language, Selamun Alejkem or Selamun Alejqum, is rarely used, the 'q' being a voiceless palatal stop typical of Balkan Turkish and Thracian Turkish phonology. Similarly, Bosniaks and Macedonian Muslims use the phrase "" (Cyrillic: ).
  • In Amharic the native Amharic term Selam is used in place of Tadias, which is the equivalent of "What's up".
  • In Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, many religious people use Äs-sälamwaleykum or and shake hands and it is the same for saying "Hello"; more secular and non-religious people say Selam and in Kazakhstan say Sälem or Sälemetsız be as an equivalent to "Hello" or "Hi". However many Turks pronounce it differently as Selamün aleyküm.
  • In Pakistan the greeting is also associated with shaking right hands and is also often accompanied with a hug when meeting infrequently (only between the same gender). In some places people put a hand on their heart as they shake your hand and greet. In addition the full greeting (As-salamu alaykum) is preferred to the shorter greeting of "salam" or "salamu alaykum". Goodbye is supplanted by a "Khuda Hafiz" or the variation "Allah Hafiz", both of which mean "May God protect you".
  • In India the greeting mostly among Muslims is a simple handshake or hug, As-salamu alaykum () or the shorter greeting "Salam" is used in informal situations. For "goodbye", the locution "Khuda Hafiz" () or the alternative form "Allah Hafiz" (), both of which mean "May God protect you", is used.
  • In Bangladesh, Assalamu alaikum () is the most common Muslim greeting. Some Muslims greet their elders with these words whilst raising their right hand to the forehead. Assalamu alaikum is even used as to say goodbye, while many others say "Khoda Hafez" or "Allah Hafez" () "May God protect you".
  • The older generation of Indian Christians (and Pakistani Christians) in the northern Indian subcontinent speak Hindi-Urdu and use the word salám when greeting one another.
  • In Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, Assalomu aleykum is used as an informal greeting.
  • In Indonesia the greeting is sometimes mixed with other greeting phrases of other religions. Informally it is also often shortened into Samlekom, a recent phenomenon, but this usage sometimes comes into criticism.
  • Shortening the greeting to acronyms, such as A.S., As'kum (in Malaysia), or AsA is becoming common amongst Internet users in chat rooms and by people using SMS. This trend is similar to writing (S) or SAWS in place of á¹£allā llāhu Ê¿alayhi wa-sallam.
  • In Chechnya and other parts of the Caucasus, Salamun Alaykum () is used to say hello, in Ossetia, a corrupted version of Salam is used ().
  • In Senegal, which has a majority of Muslims with Tasawwuf-orientation, it is a common greeting. Spelled and pronounced in Wolof: "a-sala māleykum", with the reply being "mÃ¥-lekum salām".
  • In Xinjiang, China, "Essalam eleykum" is used as a greeting by Uyghurs, and the reply is "We-eleykum essalam".
  • In Portugal, the expression gained a totally distinct and curious meaning: due to the habit of Iberian Arabs to bow and wave their hand when greeting a person, the expression "Salamaleque" is applied to exaggerated movements or acts in order to appear to be formal, entertaining or fancy. For example: "Os rapazes chegaram cheios de salamaleques".
  • In Italy, has a similar meaning, referring to excessive courtesy and politeness.
  • In France, has similar meaning, referring to excessive flattery.
  • In Malta, is often used in Catholic Church masses as a way of greeting, often by the priest, as a way of saying "peace be upon you". As the Maltese language derives from Arabic, it inherited and still uses Arabic terms for religion amongst other things.
  • In the Maldives, "" (assalaam 'alaikum) is used as a common formal greeting, used similar to "hello".
  • In Nigeria, the phrase assalamu alaikum is used as a formal greeting by Muslims.
  • In Kurdish, the phrase "" is used as a formal greeting among, often shortened to just "".
  • In Russia, Muslims use variations of the phrase, such as "" (Russian), "" or "" (Chechen), "" (Bashkir), and "" (Tatar).

See also

References

External links