As-salamu alaykum is a greeting in Arabic that means "Peace be upon you". The salam is a religious salutation among Muslims when greeting, though it is also used by Arabic speakers of other religions, such as Arab Christians, as well as many Indian Christians who speak Hindi-Urdu. The typical response to the greeting is wa ʿalaykumu s-salām "And peace be upon you, too." The complete phrase is as-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-raḥmatu -llāhi wa-barakātuh "Peace be upon you, as well as the mercy of God and his blessings." This greeting appears in greatly abbreviated forms in many languages as some variant of salām.
Pronunciation
The phrase is normally pronounced according to local dialects of speakers and is very often shortened. For example:
The expression 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 :
Gender
Greeting
Response
Singular Masculine
Singular Masculine
Singular Masculine
'
'
Singular Feminine
Singular Feminine
Singular Feminine
'
'
Dual Unisex
Dual Unisex
Dual Unisex
as-salāmu ʿalaykumā
'
Plural Masculine
Plural Masculine
Plural Masculine
as-salāmu ʿalaykum
'
Plural Feminine
Plural Feminine
Plural Feminine
'
'
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.
It is also preferred to use the greeting when arriving and also while leaving. It was reported that Abu Hurairah said "When one of you joins a gathering, let him say 'Peace'. When he wants to get up and leave, let him say 'Peace'. The former is not more important than the latter".
According to several hadiths, Muhammad was asked who should begin the greeting and he said, "The one who is riding should greet the one who is walking and the one who is walking should greet the one who is sitting and the smaller group should greet the larger group".
It is also stated that one should give the Salam greeting upon entering a house. This is based upon a verse of the Quran: "But when you enter the houses, greet one another with a greeting from God blessed and good".
The phrase appears a total of 7 times in the Quran, each time as salamun ʿalaykum. 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
In Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and TajikistanSalâm is used alone more frequently, with occasional use of Salam-o aleykom. Goodbye is supplanted by a Khudâ hâfez, meaning "with the protection of God", with the occasional use of beh salâmat, meaning " with peace".
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 this statement and shake hands and it is the same for saying "goodbye"; more secular and non-religious people say Selam 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. In some places, people put a hand on their heart as they shake your hand and greet. Also, the full greeting is preferred versus the shorter greeting, "salam". Goodbye is supplanted by a "Khuda Hafiz" or "Allah Hafiz", both of which mean "May God keep you safe".
In India, the greeting mostly among Muslims is accompanied by raising the right hand to the chest or a simple handshake or hug, the shorter greeting "Salam" is used in informal situations. Goodbye is supplanted by a "Khuda hafiz" or "Allah hafiz", both of which mean "May God keep you safe".
In Bangladesh, Assalamu alaykum is a simple greeting.
In Indonesia, the greeting is usually accompanied with a kind of two-handed "handshake", whereby the shaker's palms remain closed, and the fingers alone open to admit the other's proffered hand – which briefly touches the proffered's fingers or fingertips alone. In this way more adherent males and females may greet through touching – but remain true to the Islamic or cultural teachings forbidding physical contact between the genders. Occasionally, the right hand will touch the left breast or heart area after this. In Indonesia's Javanese/Sasak culture, a remnant of feudalism is retained, where an elder's proffered right hand is taken and pressed briefly against the forehead. Some may instead briefly kiss the hand or the main ring. This is very common for young children to greet older relatives. In slang words, this greeting is sometimes referred as "samlekom".
Shortening the greeting to acronyms, such as A.S., As'kum, or AsA is becoming common amongst Internet users in chat rooms and by people using SMS. This trend is similar to writing or SAWS in place of ṣallā llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam.
In Chechnya and other parts of the Caucasus, Salam Aleykum is used to say hi.
In Senegal which has a majority of Islams with Sufi-orientation, it is a common greeting. Spelled and pronounced in Wolof: "sala maaleykum", and the reply "maa lekum salaam."
In Xinjiang, China, "Essalam eleykum" is used as a greeting by Uyghurs, and the reply is "We'eleykum essalam".
In Portuguese, the expression "" gained a totally distinct and curious meaning: because of the habit of Arabic cultures to bow down and wave the hand from the front ahead in greeting a person, the expression "salamaleque" is applied to exaggerated movements or acts in order to appear to be formal or entertaining or even fancy. "Os rapazes chegaram cheios de salamaleques". "Salamelecco" has the same meaning also in Italian.
In Israel or among Hebrew speakers, Shalom aleichemshālôm ʻalêḵem) is a greeting in meaning "peace be upon you." The response is aleichem shalom .
