As Salaam

Salām is not merely the absence of trouble. The root means soundness — a thing whole and unbroken — and the same letters give the everyday greeting, the word islām, and sallama, to hand something over intact.

Of the seven ayat carrying this written form only one names Allah with it, in the roll of names in Sūrat al-Ḥashr. Two others call the destination dār as-salām, the home of peace, and one is Isa’s peace spoken over himself on the day he was born and the day he will die. Peace in this root is a state of being unbroken rather than a mood, which is worth remembering on a day that feels in pieces.