Let’s set the record straight on what “Islam” means:
A verb in Arabic can be morphed in about fifteen different ways to change the meaning of its three letter root (s-l-m [س ل م] in this case). Of these, only ten are commonly used.
Obama was wrong when he said “Islam” came from “salaam [سلام]”. “ Salaam” is the verbal noun of its Measure 1 verb (salama [سَلَمَ]), the most basic meaning for the root, whose expanded meaning is “to be delivered to a safe area/from calamity”. This is the base meaning where all others come from.
“Islam” is not the command form of the verb”to submit (aslim [اَسْلÙمْ]”. It is the verbal noun of measure 4 (aslama [اَسلَمَ]) which means “to pay in advance for something, to hand oneself over to Allah and the Prophet [in deed]”.
Hope this helps.
Good work. Thx.
I’ll add something else to what “salaam” means. “Salaam alykoum” is a greeting commonly used among Muslims. Though translated as “peace be upon you”, there’s a deeper meaning, as said before. Arabia of pre-Islamic times was very tribal, to the point that sometimes even sighting another person from another tribe as each party was traveling could mean a bloody altercation, even if they were strangers. To avoid this, they would pass each other and say this, meaning: “I mean no bodily harm to you, I’m just passing through”, or literally “Deliverance from potential harm is yours”.
Salaam means Deliverance from harm more than deliberate calm or tranquility, the connotation our word “peace” generally carries.