Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah

Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates that a Jew came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and (instead of saying "As-Salamu Alaikum") said: O Muhammad! «اَلسَّامُ عَلَيكُم» (i.e., death and destruction be upon you). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: “«وَ عَلَيكَ» And upon you as well.” Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) says: I wanted to say something, but I knew that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would dislike it, so I remained silent. Another Jew came and said: «اَلسَّامُ عَلَيكُم» (death and destruction be upon you). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “«وعليك» (and upon you as well).” This time too, I wanted to say something, but due to the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) dislike, I remained silent. Then a third Jew came and said: «اَلسَّامُ عَلَيكُم». I could not remain patient and I spoke out: O apes and swine! Destruction be upon you, Allah’s wrath and His curse be upon you. Do you want to adopt the manner in which Allah did not send peace upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Allah does not like foul language and obscenity. They said «اَلسَّامُ عَلَيكُم» and we also (avoiding foul language, simply by saying «وعليك») replied. In fact, the Jews are a jealous people and they do not envy us for any trait as much as they envy us for Salam and Ameen.”