1403 — “When a man meets his Muslim brother, let him say: ‘Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.’”

Al-Tirmidhi (3/394) and Ibn al-Sunni, in al-Yaum wa al-Laylah (233), narrated it through Khalid al-Hadhdha, from Abu Tamimah al-Hujaymi, from a man of his people, who said: “I looked for the Prophet but could not find him, so I sat down. Then there was a group of people, among whom he was, but I did not recognize him. He was reconciling matters between them. When he had finished, some of them stood up with him and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah!’ When I saw this, I said, ‘Upon you be peace, O Messenger of Allah! Upon you be peace, O Messenger of Allah! Upon you be peace, O Messenger of Allah!’ He said, ‘“Upon you be peace” is the greeting of the dead.’ Then he turned to me and said the words quoted above. The Prophet then returned my greeting, saying, ‘And upon you be mercy; and upon you be mercy; and upon you be mercy.’”

This is al-Tirmidhi’s wording, and he said: “It is a good, authentic hadith.” I say: Its chain of transmission is authentic according to al-Bukhari’s criteria. Ibn al-Sunni’s wording is: “Indeed, ‘upon you be peace’ is the greeting of the dead. When one of you meets his brother, let him say: ‘Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah.’” Al-Suyuti attributed it in al-Jami al-Kabir (2/123/1—Maktab facsimile edition) only to Ibn al-Sunni, which is a manifest oversight.

The first sentence of it was also narrated by Abu Dawud (2/644) and Ahmad (3/482), through another route from Abu Tamimah al-Hujaymi, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Do not say, ‘Upon you be peace,’ for ‘upon you be peace’ is the greeting of the dead.”

1404 — “When one of you eats and his morsel falls from his hand, let him remove from it whatever has soiled it and eat it. He should not leave it for Satan, nor wipe his hand