Why didn't the Smoke Monster didn't kill Sayid?

The more important issue to first consider is that the Smoke Monster did in fact speak to Sayid. The dagger that Dogen gave Sayid would have killed dude, had Sayid killed him before he greeted him, he would have died. Dogan is thus being made look bad to the viewers. However, his immediate response to Sayid was that the latter had let the dude speak. Sayid denied this, having overlooked the short greeting that he was unable to prevent.



In short, this means the dude can be killed - according to the "rules" - just like Jacob.

More to come...