“Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd related from Abū al-Walīd ibn Rushd that the permissibility of adding to ‘and His blessings’ when the one initiating the greeting ends with it is inferred from Allah’s saying: ‘Respond with a better greeting.’”

He then said:

“These weak hadiths, when combined, strengthen the ruling they jointly establish: the legitimacy of adding to ‘and His blessings.’”

This is important testimony from a Commander of the Faithful in hadith, refuting the writer referred to above from both the hadith-critical and juristic perspectives. It corresponds exactly with the position we have maintained, both in hadith criticism and in jurisprudence. Blessed, then, are our brothers who act upon this sunnah and others besides it—especially those of whom the writer informed us in his first letter to me, intending that they should abandon it! “Blessedness is theirs, and an excellent final abode.” All praise is due to Allah, by Whose grace righteous deeds are brought to completion.

Having said this, another thought occurred to me, supplementing what I had regarded as more likely in my reply to the esteemed brother: namely, that al-Bukhārī’s teacher in the hadith which he deemed weak was not the weak Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Rāzī, but rather the trustworthy Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Iṣfahānī, upon whom al-Bukhārī relied in his Ṣaḥīḥ. I therefore asked one of my sons-in-law to trace for me, in al-Bukhārī’s al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, the names of the teachers called Muḥammad from whom he narrated therein, either directly or by suspended citation. He did so—may Allah reward him well—and the following became clear to me:

When he narrates from Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Rāzī, he identifies him in one of two ways:

The first is to name him through his father, as “Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd,” as I found in numerous places; the references are: