When I first learnt how to pray salat, I was taught as part of the tashahud to recite the phrase "السلام عليكم أيها النبي."
I am hardly fluent in Arabic, but my translation of the above is basically "Peace be upon you, oh prophet." As a native English speaker this has always felt wrong to me, as using the second-person pronoun "you" suggests that I am speaking (and thus praying) directly to the prophet, rather than to God Almighty; this brings to me concerns of shirk.
My question here isn't about whether reciting the tashahud itself is required, or exactly what form it should take; I am more concerned about the actual Arabic construction of the sentence itself. Does the use of "كم" (or, as I have also seen used, "ك") in this case have the same connotations in Arabic? Or can it be reasonably used to refer to a third-party in a manner not seen in English?
