Hadeeth: 'A complete greeting includes shaking hands'

18-3-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

As salamualaikum. I read of a hadeeth in kanzul ummal of al-Hindi vol 5 hadeeth no. 25347 that Abu umamah ra said that complete Islam is to hold your brothers hand and to do musafah with right hand only .could you inform me about the authenticity of ahadeeth .

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

Al-Haakim presented this Hadeeth in his book Al-Kuna on the authority of Abu Umaamah. It was also attributed to Abu Umaamah in Kanz Al-‘Ummaal and Al-Jaami‘ As-Sagheer. Tammaam Ar-Raazi cited it in Al-Fawaa’id with the wording: "ِA complete greeting includes taking hold of the hand"; and: "Shaking hands is to be done with the right hand. "

Imaam Ahmad cited it with a different chain of narration on the authority of Abu Umaamah with the following wording: "A complete visit to a sick person includes placing one's hand on his forehead or his hand, and asking him how he is; and a complete greeting among you includes shaking hands. " [Musnad] However, the chains of narration of both narrations are weak.

The report was transmitted as a Marfoo‘ Hadeeth (i.e. attributed to the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) on the authority of other companions. It has been narrated on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ood and Al-Baraa’ ibn ‘Aazib but the chains of narration of all these versions of the Hadeeth are weak and they do not corroborate one another. Al-Albaani declared these versions of the Hadeeth as weak; he commented on them after citing them in his book As-Silsilah Adh-Dha‘eefah, saying, "In brief, the chains of narration of this Hadeeth are all weak; some of which are weaker than the others and none of which can be used as sound proof. I would fairly label the Marfoo‘ version of the Hadeeth as weak and the Mawqoof (i.e. a narration attributed to a Companion) as authentic."

The authentic Mawqoof report in this regard is that which has been cited in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad by Al-Bukhari on the authority of the Companion Al-Baraa’ ibn ‘Aazib which reads: "A complete greeting includes shaking your brother's hand."

Allaah Knows best.