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Responding to greeting other than salam

Answered as per Shafi'i Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
Translated by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad

Is it obligatory to return someone’s greeting if he does not say ‘peace be upon you’, but something else such as the greeting, ‘May Allah give you a good morning’?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

It is not obligatory to return any greeting except the greeting of peace. However, it is good to return a supplication to someone who says this to one, such as, ‘And may Allah give you a good morning, too.’

Ibn Hajar says in the Tuhfa, “[…] One who says, ‘may Allah give you a good morning’ or one who says, ‘may Allah strengthen you’, does not make it obligatory for the one greeted to respond. However, replying to him with a similar supplication is good, unless one does not reply to him because he intends to reprove him for leaving the sunna of greeting with peace.”

السؤال: هل يجب ردُّ التحية إن كانت بغير السلام كقول البعض صبحك الله بالخير ونحو ذلك ؟
الجواب : لا يجب ردُّ التحية إلا السلام، لكن يحسنُ الدعاء لقائل ذلك فيقول مثلاً وأنت صبحك الله بالخير، قال ابنُ حجر في “التحفة” :” ( تتمةٌ ) لا يستحق مبتدئ بنحو صبحك الله بالخير أو قواك الله جواباً، ودعاؤه له في نظيره حسنٌ، إلا أن يقصد بإهماله تأديبه لتركه سنةَ السلام “. اهـ

This answer was indexed from Qibla.com, which used to have a repository of Islamic Q&A answered by various scholars. The website is no longer in existence. It has now been transformed into a learning portal with paid Islamic course offering under the brand of Kiflayn.

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