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A distinctive characteristic of Muslims is the exchange of greetings saluting one another with al-salamu 'alaykum! - along with the response ...wa 'alaykum al-salam! This is usually translated as "peace be upon you!" and "and upon you peace!" (This is a shortened form of the fuller phrase; see below.) Here salam is normally understood today as 'peace', while its sense might better be rendered: 'greetings of security-peace'. This greeting is known as tahiyyat al-islam, 'the salutation of Islam', and conveys wishing for the other person that God grant them a long successful life of peace secure from harm. When the Prophet's paternal cousin Ja'far b. Abi Talib in 615 (seven years before the migration of the Prophet to Medina in 622) described the essence of Islamic guidance to the Ethiopian Emperor, the 'Negus' (al-Najashi) of Islamic literature, at his court in Axum, Ja'far emphasised this 'salutation of Islam' as a new practice specific to their religion. A closer examination of this important phrase frequently expressed on the lips of Muslims, discloses how inseparable the conceptions of security and peace truly are in Islamic experience.
Greetings in Prayer
A parallel use of this famous greeting occurs at the very conclusion of Islam's ritual prayer with the double salutation of taslim, first to one's right and then to the left, marking the completion of the formal salat. The act of taslim involves dual repetition of the full phrase: al-salamu 'alaykum wa rahmat Allahi wa barakatuhu, "Peace-Security be upon you, and God's Mercy and His Blessing". This word taslim derives from the Arabic verbal stem II sallama ('to make or render salutations of peace-security'), as in the formula of praise and blessing invariably invoked upon mentioning the Prophet Muhammad - see Qur'an 33:56, "God and His angels make blessings upon the Prophet; O you who believe, do you also bless him and render him salutations of peace-security" ([...] sallu 'alayhi wa sallimu tasliman).1 The frequently uttered eulogy praising God's Messenger Muhammad - "May God bless him and give him peace" (salla llahu 'alayhi wa sallam) - conveys sincere benedictions and hopes that the Prophet enjoy the highest reward and beatitude in the Hereafter, namely in Paradise. We should recall that the phrase dar al-salam, 'The Abode of Peace-Security',...