Peace Be Upon You

Peace Be Upon You – The Muslim Greeting

The Muslim greeting of “as-salaamu alaykum” in Arabic means “peace be upon you”.

It may be news to many that this greeting was taught by Moses (Musa, peace be upon him) the prophet of Judaism, and Jesus (Isa, peace be upon him) the prophet of Christianity.

The language of Moses was Hebrew: In Hebrew the greeting is: “shalom aleichem”. This means the same as “as-salaamu alaykum”.

Traditionally the pious Jews use the greeting “shalom aleichem”, “peace be upon you!” And its natural response is: “aleichem shalom”, “upon you be peace,” or the slightly more formal “wa’aleichem ashalom”, meaning “and upon you be peace.” This Hebrew response is paralleled by the Arabic response, “wa alaykum as-salaam”.

Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic belong to the Semitic family of languages since they were derived from the same parent language. The close kinship of the Semitic languages to one another can be seen in the persistence of the same roots from one language to another.

So the root s-l-m, for example, means “peace” in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and other Semitic languages. Thus Hebrew and Aramaic are lexically, etymologically, as well as syntactically kindred sister languages. And for that reason, when Jews greet one another with “shalom aleichem” it is almost the same as the Arabic “as-salaamu alaykum”.

Jesus taught the same greeting to his disciples. See the following verses from the Gospels:

“And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.” (Luke 10:5)

“And as they thus speak, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” (Luke 24:36)

“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” (John 20:19)

“And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.” (John 20:26)

Jesus spoke the Aramaic language, which is only a dialect of the Hebrew language. So, the English expression, “peace be unto you” given in the Gospels as the equivalent of what Jesus taught, is a translation of the original Aramaic expression used by Jesus: “shalom aleichem”.

The word “Islam” is derived from the same root as the Arabic word “salaam”, meaning peace. The name of the religion “Islam” means the peace one may attain by submitting to the laws of God.

We know that peace is extremely valuable and essential for the happy co-existence and healthy growth of individuals, families, and societies. History teaches us that if peace is absent for a long time, a society would face death, destruction, and even extinction.

At the familial level, peace is crucial for the growth and education of its younger generation. In society, no development or progress at the socio-political, commercial, or technological levels is viable in the absence of peace.

And religions teach of eternal peace for the dead souls in the hereafter. As sensible beings, it is our duty not only to seek peace, but also to strive for its attainment in every sphere of life.

Indeed, peace is a state of balance and harmony arising out of our conforming to the laws of nature and our obedience to the moral laws of religion. Both these sets of laws are from God Almighty Himself. Muslims believe that this is because it is God Who created the universe and its laws.

Whether we want it or not, everything in the universe willingly or unwillingly obeys God’s laws which are called Laws of Nature. In other words, everything in the universe submits to God Almighty and is at peace with Him and the world around.

Islam — or “living in peaceful submission to God” — is at the initial level, our submission to the laws of nature; and we become “Muslims” (those who submit) at this level, willingly or unwillingly. God says in the Quran what means,

“Whatever beings there are in the heavens and the earth do prostrate themselves to Allah (acknowledging subjection),- with good-will or in spite of themselves: so do their shadows in the morning and evenings.” (Surah Al Ra’d 13:15)

And there is a second level of living in peace, that is what the ancient prophets and their followers did, as is evident from this verse:

“Say: “We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among them, and to Allah do we bow our will (in Islam).”” (Surah Ali ‘Imran 3:84)

The English sentence at the end of the verse, “and to Allah do we bow our will (in Islam)” is a translation of the original Arabic: “Wa nahnu lahu Muslimoon”. This can also be rendered thus: “and we are Muslims”.

The purport of the verse is: We believe in all the prophets of God and in all the revealed books of God — and we do not differentiate between one and another of the prophets of God, because we are Muslims — and as Muslims, we give the same respect and honor to all the Muslim prophets of God. This is because all the prophets of God and their followers were living in “Islam”.

And then there is Islam as the complete submission to God Almighty: as revealed in the Last Testament called the Quran, to the man Muslims believe to be the final prophet of God, named Muhammad (peace be upon him):

“This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion…” (Surah Al Ma’idah 5:3)

That is to say, Islam as taught by the earlier prophets was completed and perfected by Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The foregoing underscores the fact that we cannot have a better prayer than the prayer for salaam — Islam — peace.

And the best greeting we can give to our fellow beings is nothing but “peace be upon you” — “as-salaamu alaykum”.

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– By Professor Shahul Hameed
Source: www.readingislam.com

Professor Shahul Hameed is a consultant to the Reading Islam Website. He also held the position of the President of the Kerala Islamic Mission, Calicut, India. He is the author of three books on Islam published in the Malayalam language. His books are on comparative religion, the status of women, and science and human values.