This is not contradicted by the wording of the hadith recorded by al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1111) and Ahmad in his Musnad (2/444): “When you meet the polytheists on the road, do not initiate the greeting to them, and force them to its narrowest part.” This wording is anomalous, for al-Bukhari also recorded it (1103), as did Muslim, Ahmad (2/266, 459), and others, through routes from Suhayl ibn Abi Salih, with the wording mentioned above.

The second is narrated from Abu Uthman al-Nahdi, who said: “Abu Musa wrote to Ruhban, greeting him in his letter. He was asked, ‘Do you greet him when he is a disbeliever?!’ He replied, ‘He wrote to me and greeted me, so I returned his greeting.’” It was recorded by al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1101) with a sound chain.

The point of evidence here is that the questioner’s words, “Do you greet him when he is a disbeliever?” indicate that they understood initiating the greeting to a disbeliever to be generally impermissible, rather than restricted to encountering him on the road. This is why the questioner objected to Abu Musa, and Abu Musa accepted the point and did not dispute it. Rather, he excused himself by explaining that he had done so in response to the other man’s greeting, not by initiating it. Thus, the intended meaning is established.

The third is that when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, wrote to Heraclius, the ruler of the Romans, while he was in Syria, he did not begin his letter with the greeting. Rather, he wrote: “In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. From Muhammad, the servant and Messenger of Allah, to Heraclius, the great one of the Romans: Peace be upon whoever follows guidance ...” It was recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim, and it appears in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1109). Had the aforementioned prohibition been confined to the road, he, peace and blessings be upon him, would have initiated the Islamic greeting to him and would not have said: “Peace be upon whoever follows guidance.”