I add: That is what he said, yet the report clearly warrants re-examination, for it hinges on Abū ʿUbaydah ibn ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Masʿūd, and—as al-Tirmidhī himself notes repeatedly—Abū ʿUbaydah never heard from his father. The chain is therefore interrupted. In addition, the narrators differed over its isnād in four distinct ways, all of which I have listed and analysed in detail in my work “al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah wa’l-Mawḍūʿah wa-Atharuhā al-Sayyiʾ fī’l-Ummah” (no. 1105).

2. Ḥadith 486: “Reported by al-Tirmidhī, who said, ‘An authentic ḥadith.’”
   I reply: On the contrary, it is weak. Its chain contains two weak transmitters, as I have shown in “al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah wa’l-Mawḍūʿah,” no. 1063.

3. Ḥadith 894, concerning the kissing of his ﷺ hand and foot: “Reported by al-Tirmidhī and others with authentic chains.”
   I reply: That is how he phrased it, yet neither he nor anyone else has more than a single chain for this report, and a full discussion of the author’s wording—more than sufficient—will appear under Benefit Two. Moreover, that chain includes ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salamah (with a kasrah on the lām), al-Murādī, about whom the critics differ. He is the transmitter of ʿAlī’s narration that forbids a person in a state of major ritual impurity from reciting the Quran, and—as the author himself acknowledges—the leading ḥadith authorities such as Aḥmad, al-Shāfiʿī, al-Bukhārī and others have declared him weak, as you will see set out in “Ḍaʿīf Abī Dāwūd” (no. 30). Al-Zaylaʿī cites in Naṣb al-Rāyah (4/258) that al-Nasāʾī pronounced this narration of al-Tirmidhī “munkar” (rejected) and said, in the words of al-Mundhirī, that the rejection was due to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salamah, for there is criticism of him.

4. Ḥadith 895: “We approached the Prophet ﷺ and kissed his hand.” Reported by Abū Dāwūd.
   I reply: In its chain is Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād al-Hāshimī, their client. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “He is weak; when he grew old his memory deteriorated and he had to be prompted.”