The word islam and salam have nothing in common except a common root
Reader comment on item: "Islam" Does Not Mean "Peace"
in response to reader comment: Bernard Lewis says that Islam means peace

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jul 5, 2007 at 06:34

Again the genius of the semitic languages grammar is the root system; and in this case we have the root SLM and yes the words Islam and salam belong to the same root SLM but each word belongs to a different stem and this is what makes all the difference. So we have: Yislam (he becomes Muslim), Islami (belongs to islam), Islam (deen al-Islam), and the other stem in this case is: Yusalim (he provides greetings), and salam or peace. We also have the stems: yistaslim (he surrenders in the secular sense), istislam or surrendering again in the secular sense. And then we have yastalim or he receives and Istilam or the receiving. And you would agree with me that receiving and surrendering and peace do not have the same meaning.

If so why would you believe that the word islam and salam have anything in common except a common root?

And like I say: kafr means village and a kafir means an infidel and I'm sure you agree with me that they both belong to the same stem KFR but a kafir is not a village and islam is not peace!

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