with regard to his memory; but he was not alone in narrating the hadith. Aḥmad also said (6/71):
Haytham ibn Khārijah narrated to us: Ḥafṣ ibn Maysarah narrated to us, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. However, he said: “He instills gentleness in them.”
Al-Mundhirī cited it with this wording (3/262), on the authority of ʿĀʾishah, and said: “Aḥmad and al-Bazzār narrated it on the authority of Jābir, and the narrators in both their chains are narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ.” Al-Haythamī said something similar in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (8/19). Aḥmad’s second chain is authentic according to al-Bukhārī’s criteria.
The occasion for this hadith is the report of al-Miqdām ibn Shurayḥ from his father, who said: I asked ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, about going out to the desert. She replied: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would go out to these hills. Once, when he wished to go out to the desert, he sent for a she-camel from the charity herd and said to me: ‘ʿĀʾishah, be gentle, for gentleness is never found in anything without adorning it, and it is never removed from anything without disfiguring it.’”
524 — “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would go out to these hills. Once, when he wished to go out to the desert, he sent for a she-camel set aside from the charity herd and said to me: ‘ʿĀʾishah, be gentle, for gentleness is never found in anything without adorning it, and it is never removed from anything without disfiguring it.’”
It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (2478)—whose version this is—and Aḥmad (6/58/222), through Sharīk, from al-Miqdām. Sharīk had poor retention, but he was corroborated by Shuʿbah in Muslim (8/22–23), al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (469/475), and Aḥmad (6/125/171); and by Isrāʾīl in Aḥmad (6/112/206).
525 — “Whenever two Muslims meet and shake hands, they are forgiven before they part.”
It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (5212), al-Tirmidhī (2/121), Ibn Mājah (3703), Aḥmad (4/289/303), and Ibn ʿAdī (31/1), through al-Ajlaḥ, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. Al-Tirmidhī said: