Assalamu alaikum: the greeting of peace
We greet everyone with Assalamu alaikum, we answer Wa alaikum assalam, and the one who arrives, or is smaller, says it first.
This episode goes public on YouTube on Saturday 7 November at 9:00 Lisbon time. The note below is ready now.
اَلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ Assalamu alaikum Peace be upon you
The answer when someone says salam to you وَعَلَيْكُمُ السَّلَامُ Wa alaikum assalam And upon you be peace
A fuller answer, as Baba gives it to Raiha at the gate وَعَلَيْكُمُ السَّلَامُ وَرَحْمَةُ اللّٰهِ Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullah And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah
The story
Yusuf storms into the kitchen hunting for his cap without greeting anyone, and Noor the cat hides under the table. Mama and Maryam explain that Assalamu alaikum is a dua for peace, that the answer is Wa alaikum assalam, and that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, told us that spreading salam makes us love one another. Baba, home through the garden gate, teaches who says it first, and little Raiha decides that since she is small, she says it first, to everyone in the house, including the cat.
What your child learned
- Assalamu alaikum means peace be upon you. It is a dua: when we say it, we are asking Allah to give the other person peace.
- The answer is Wa alaikum assalam, and upon you be peace. We say salam to everyone we meet, even people we do not know, because the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, told us that spreading salam makes us love one another.
- The one who arrives says it to the people already there, the one riding says it to the one walking, and the young say it to the old. Raiha is small, so Raiha says it first.
- When we come into our home, we say salam even if it looks empty, because Allah tells us in the Quran to greet when we enter a house. The salam always finds somebody.
Talk about it at dinner
- What did Yusuf forget to say when he came into the kitchen looking for his cap?
- What does Assalamu alaikum mean, and what do we say back?
- Who says salam first? Why did Maryam say it to a kitchen that looked empty?
Try this week
Make salam the first word at every door this week. Whoever comes into a room, or home from school or work, says Assalamu alaikum before anything else, and everyone inside answers, even when the room looks empty.
Print and do
The free pack for this episode: a colouring page of the scene, the fridge cards with the phrase, and Raiha's sticker chart for the habit of the week. Three pages, as a PDF to print at home.
Download A4 (801 KB) US Letter
More to print from the same art, including the colouring book and the phrase posters, is in the shop.
Where it comes from
The teaching in this episode rests on these sources. The links open quran.com and sunnah.com, where you can read each one in Arabic and English.
- Spreading salam brings love: Sahih Muslim 54
- Who greets first (rider to walker, walker to sitter, few to many, young to old): Sahih al-Bukhari 6231–6234
- Greeting when entering a house: Quran 24:61
- Answering with an equal or better greeting: Quran 4:86
In this episode
- 0:00 Welcome
- 0:03 The little storm
- 1:04 What salam means
- 2:50 Say it with me
- 3:29 Baba at the gate
- 4:30 Greeting the house
- 5:15 Bedtime
- 5:47 The Salam Song
- 6:17 Quiz
- 7:07 Sing along
From the same episode
- The Salam Song, the song on its own with the words on screen (from Sunday 8 November).
- Bismillah, Alhamdulillah and Salam! Three Episodes, a longer sitting (from Sunday 15 November).
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