I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, all of whose narrators are trustworthy. Abu ʿAbd al-Rahim was Khalid ibn Abi Yazid al-Harrani, the maternal uncle of Muhammad ibn Salamah al-Harrani.

1561 — “If you insist on sitting, then show people the way, return greetings, and help the oppressed.”

Ahmad (4/282, 291, and 293), al-Tahawi in Mushkil al-Athar (1/60), and Ibn Hibban (1953) recorded it through Israʾil, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Baraʾ, who said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, passed by a gathering of the Ansar and said”—and then mentioned it.

Ahmad (4/282, 291, and 301), al-Darimi (2/282), al-Tirmidhi (2/121), and al-Tahawi as well (1/59) also recorded it through Shuʿbah, with the exception that Shuʿbah said: “Abu Ishaq did not hear it from al-Baraʾ.”

I say: This is one of the many proofs that Abu Ishaq—al-Sabiʿi—practised tadlis. For this reason, in our critical editions we have not treated as evidence those reports in which he did not explicitly state direct transmission. Moreover, it has another hidden defect: his confusion in old age. Yet Shuʿbah narrated from him before that confusion occurred; despite the aforementioned discontinuity, al-Tirmidhi said immediately afterward: “A good, singular hadith!”

Nevertheless, the hadith is authentic, for both al-Bukhari and Muslim recorded it, as did al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1150) and Ahmad (3/36), on the authority of Abu Saʿid al-Khudri, in a similar wording. Among its three points is the statement: “Return greetings.” Al-Bukhari likewise recorded it in al-Adab (1149) on the authority of Abu Hurayrah.