When you greet the students — A Teacher’s Reflection

“A greeting from Allah, blessed and goodly.”

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

When we come to class, we greet and are greeted by the salam. تَحِيَّةً مِّنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ مُبَارَكَةً طَيِّبَةً “A greeting from Allah, blessed and goodly.” (Quran, 24:61)

Our full greeting has three parts, and each sets the tone on the classroom atmosphere we need to implement.

Assalamu alaykum — Peace be upon you. The classroom needs to be a place of PEACE and SAFETY. “A Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand Muslims are safe.” (Bukhari, 10)

wa rahmatullahi — And Allah’s mercy. We need to feel mercy and compassion for each other. Satan wants to cause enmity and hatred between us. But we should show enmity to satan, not to each other. “Be fellow-brothers and servants of Allah.” (Sahih Muslim 2563c)

wa barakatuh — And His blessings. We should aim, intend and hope for blessings to emerge from our class and lesson, yielding outputs of benefit and increase in the future and in ways we cannot perceive.

Notice “ALLAH’s mercy and HIS blessings” has reference to the Lord, owner of majesty and honor. His name and remembrance should continue to be in our mind, as we conduct the class. Allah says:

وَاتَّقُونِ يَا أُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ — And fear Me, O you of understanding.

The salam is a reminder we wish the best for the students, and they wish the best for us.

For people obsessed with likes and view counts in social media, remember everytime someone sees you, you get a ‘view’. If we were to add up we would be getting millions of views on a regular basis. So conduct your life so your identiy, appearance, character and behavior displays utter beauty and nobility, being exemplary Muslims so others are guided by your appearance and grace.

And peace be upon you.