Greeting and Congratulation: A Salam That Plants Love

The salam is among the greatest rites of Islam and the most gathering of affection; it is the greeting of the angels, the greeting of the people of Paradise, and the first thing by which hearts open when people meet. This chapter gathers twenty-three adab for the salam, and five for the adab of meeting and shaking hands. Here we present the loveliest and the nearest to you.

The first adab is spreading the salam and giving it widely, to those you know and those you do not; it is a trait that bequeaths love, keeps the devil away, and admits one to Paradise. The Prophet ﷺ tied faith to mutual love and made spreading the salam their path:

We have arranged them and phrased them briefly:

1. Spread the salam. Give it to those you know and those you do not; it is the key to affection.
2. Begin with it. Do not wait to be greeted; the one who greets first has the greater share of good.
3. Hold to the Islamic greeting. "As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh," and do not turn from it to something else.
4. Complete it. The fuller your salam, the greater your reward, so say it in full.
5. Return the salam. Returning a greeting is a due right, unbecoming to neglect.
6. Return it with better. If you are greeted with a greeting, answer with a fuller one or its like.
7. Keep the order of who begins. The younger greets the elder, the rider the walker, the passer-by the seated, and the few the many.
8. Greet on arriving and on leaving. The greeting of arrival is no more due than the greeting of farewell.
9. Shake hands on meeting. A handshake removes rancour and increases love.
10. Convey the salam. To carry an absent one's greeting to someone present is part of spreading the salam and winning hearts.

Among the firmest adab of the salam is the obligation to return a greeting, and the most complete is to return it with better; whoever greets you with a greeting, meet it with a fuller one or its like, gladdening their heart and increasing affection. It is an adab Allah taught us in His Book:

In the chapter on meeting there are five adab, the first of which is a cheerful, open face; the first thing one meets a brother with is a sincere smile that clears the chest and plants closeness, and it is a charity:

Then comes the handshake on meeting, by which sins fall away and affection grows, and the embrace on returning from a distant journey; all of them are adab that strengthen the bonds of brotherhood between people.

Congratulation on happy occasions is a branch of that spreading of the salam and winning of hearts among the aims of this chapter; when your relative marries, your child graduates, or a baby is born in the family, your greeting becomes a congratulation that brings joy and keeps you close. And the first congratulation is a gracious invitation that tells your guest they are meant and welcomed. In invi2 you craft an invitation worthy of those you love and reach them through a single WhatsApp link, so the greeting and the joy begin at the very first touch.