The 365 · Sunnah · Day 120 · Speech
Saying Salām When Leaving a Gathering
The hadith
إِذَا انْتَهَى أَحَدُكُمْ إِلَى مَجْلِسٍ فَلْيُسَلِّمْ، فَإِذَا أَرَادَ أَنْ يَقُومَ فَلْيُسَلِّمْ، فَلَيْسَتِ الْأُولَى بِأَحَقَّ مِنَ الآخِرَةِ
Abū Hurayrah reported the Prophet ﷺ said: "When one of you arrives at a gathering, let him give salām. And when he wishes to leave, let him give salām. The first is no more deserving than the second." (Tirmidhī 2706, Abū Dāwūd 5208, classed ḥasan.) Two salāms bracket every gathering: one to enter, one to leave.
Svenska: Abu Hurayra berättade att Profeten ﷺ sade: 'När någon av er kommer till en samling, låt honom ge salam. Och när han vill gå, låt honom ge salam. Det första är inte mer förtjänt än det andra.' (Tirmidhi 2706, Abu Dawud 5208, klassad hasan.)
Jami at-Tirmidhi 2706, Sunan Abu Dawud 5208 (Abu Hurayrah)
The story
The Companions practiced both salāms strictly. When a man would rise to leave a gathering of the Prophet ﷺ, he would say al-salām ʿalaykum, and the Prophet ﷺ would return it. Even at home, when the Prophet ﷺ would step away from his wives' rooms briefly, he would give salām on returning, modeling that any re-entry, however brief, deserved the full opening. The closing salām was symmetric.
Why it's here
Most Muslims remember to say salām when entering a room and forget to say salām when leaving. The Prophet ﷺ explicitly equalized both: the leaving salām is no less deserving than the entering one. Why? Because the gathering is a unit; the believer enters under Allah's peace and exits under Allah's peace, sealing the time spent together as a complete unit of barakah. Dropping the closing salām breaks the bracket and leaves the gathering open-ended.
Try it today
1. When leaving any gathering of Muslims, even one of two people, say al-salām ʿalaykum aloud as you stand. 2. In WhatsApp group chats, when you have said your piece and are stepping away, type fi amānillah or salām as a closing. 3. When leaving the masjid after prayer, give salām to those near you before walking out. 4. When ending a phone call with a Muslim, close with salām, not 'bye' or 'talk later'. 5. Train your children to give both opening and closing salāms when entering and leaving rooms.
In your day
Today most Muslims sneak out of gatherings, family dinners, or masjid groups with a wave or 'see you later'. The Sunnah is to lift your voice with al-salām ʿalaykum, even if briefly, even if just to the host. In family WhatsApp groups, model this by closing your messages with salām if you are stepping away from a thread. The principle: do not exit Muslim spaces in silence.
A reflection to carry
The Sunnah brackets every Muslim gathering with two salāms: one to open, one to close. The Prophet ﷺ explicitly equalized them so the believer would not undervalue the closing greeting. Most of us today drift out of gatherings with a wave or a fade, breaking the bracket. The Sunnah cure: lift your voice and say al-salām ʿalaykum as you stand to leave. Apply this to family meals, masjid groups, work meetings with Muslim colleagues, phone calls, even WhatsApp threads. Over time, the people around you will absorb the rhythm: salaam in, salaam out. The gathering becomes a complete enclosed unit of peace, not an open-ended drift.
Read the longer reflection
Reflect on how the Prophet ﷺ engineered Muslim social life. Every gathering has two salāms, one bracketing each end, exactly like the takbīr at the start of ṣalāh and the taslīm at the end of ṣalāh. The structural parallel is not accidental. Ṣalāh is bracketed because what happens inside it is sacred and must be sealed; the Prophet ﷺ is teaching that the time Muslims spend together is also a kind of sacred, a kind of small majlis-of-Allah, and it too must be sealed at both ends. The believer who internalizes this stops sneaking out of dinners with a wave, stops leaving WhatsApp threads in silence, stops hanging up the phone with 'okay later'. Instead, he closes every shared time with the same al-salām ʿalaykum that he opened it with. Notice how the hadith handles a likely objection. Some Companion or believer might have thought: surely the entering salām is more important, because that is the first impression and the formal arrival. The Prophet ﷺ preempts this: 'the first is no more deserving than the second'. Equal weight. The closing salām is not a lesser appendix; it is the same act, on the way out. Practical application: when leaving any gathering, even one of two, train yourself to say salām audibly as you stand. With non-mahram audiences, address the salām to the room or to the host without singling out individuals. On the phone, close with salām, not 'bye'. In a WhatsApp thread you are stepping away from, type a brief salām or fi amānillah. In the masjid after prayer, before slipping into your shoes, exchange salām with whoever is nearest. Build the habit until it is reflex, the way you do not leave ṣalāh without taslīm. The hidden barakah: every closed salām is a small duʿā of peace cast over the time you just spent together, sealing it and asking Allah's protection over what was discussed and felt. Over a lifetime, you will have bracketed thousands of gatherings with peace, and the Prophet's ﷺ promise of forgiveness for the salaam-exchange will have applied at both ends.
Sources: Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free