Al Salam Alaikom

Tasnim Al Sayed

Al Salam Alaikom is a Muslim greeting in Arabic that means "Peace be upon you". The greeting is a standard salutation among Muslims and is routinely used whenever and wherever Muslims gathered and interacted, whether socially or within worship and other contexts.

Prophet Mohammad used to always tell people to greet each other whenever they meet and that’s actually because greeting among people spread a kind of respect, love, and peace. Prophet Mohammad always wanted people to love each other, to care about each other and to ask about each other. According to prophet Mohammad "The rights of a Muslim upon another are five: returning greetings, visiting the sick, following the funeral procession, responding to invitations and offering 'Tashmeet' for one who sneezes." (Bukhari and Muslim) this Hadith shows in general how the relationship between muslims should be. The Prophet also said:

"The best of the two persons is the one who begins with salaam." (Related by Nawawi in his book Al-Adk). There are plenty of Hadith by Prophet Mohammad that show the importance of the salam or greeting between the Muslims and that to know the importance of salam and the power that it has on effecting people’s hearts.

According to a Hadith related by Bukhari and Muslim, this form of greeting was ordained by Allah from the time of Prophet Adam (peace be upon him). And that was when God asked Adam to go and greet the angles.

There are many verses in the Quran also that shows the importance of the salam “But when you enter houses, greet one another with a greeting from Allah, blessed and good...."

(Qur'an, An-Nur 24:61)

These verses that I just mentioned and the hadiths are just nothing to the amount of verses in the Quran and in the hadiths the call people for greeting and to spread salaam and love. Those are proofs that Islam is the religion of Salam (Peace) and it is so sad how this religion which is all about peace and love is now the symbol of terrorism and aggression. Not only for non Muslims, but also to some Muslims who believe that this religion has been distorted because of some people who want to kill under the name of religion, who pretend to be following this peaceful religion and its prophet who used to always call for love and peace. I chose the phrase “ Al Salam Alaikom” not because it is an Islamic greeting but because I used to use words like hi or hello or Marhba to greet people because I never thought about the phrase Al Salam Alaikom. But when I once stopped for a second and thought of its beauty “peace be upon you” I felt that it has a deep meaning, the meaning of our existence, the meaning of the messages of all the religions, the message of Peace. Peace, which we all seek for, what we all aim to, what we all dream of. Peace. Starting from ourselves to everything that surrounds us.

And the beautiful thing is that when I stopped that moment and thought about the phrase of al salam alaikom was when my mom answered her phone and said wa alaikom al salam, which is the typical response of al salam alaikom. And I still remember that the reason that made me stopped and think about al salam alaikom was when my mom told me that her Christian friend is the only one who says al salam alaikom instead of Hi or Good morning. I wondered back then what is the meaning of al salam alaikom? Why does a Christian use it? Why don’t I use it? I honestly used to hate to use this word, but when I realized how beautiful its meaning and how important it is between people to spread love and peace.

This greeting appears in greatly abbreviated forms in many languages from Malagasy to Urdu as some variant of salām 

Not only Arab use the salam but also many different countries use it with some difference such as shaking hands, hugging or putting a hand on the heart.

I can see nowadays that Islam has many misconception and only Muslims can change these misconceptions and show the world the true meaning of Islam and peace.

I chose to write the phrase itself Al Salamu Alaikom in Arabic in  Al Diwani font in a very simple way yet using a beautiful Arabic font to represent the simplicity of this phrase and I chose to leave the background white because I couldn’t find any other color that represent simplicity and peace more than white. I draw peace dove on the side with the blue color because blue represent peace. By looking at the phrase itself with its white background you will definitely feel comfort. I wanted to spread salam and peace in a very simple way because I believe that simplicity is the key to all hearts.