Aḥmad recorded it (3/460).

However, this Abū Maʿshar—whose name was Nujayḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sindī—was weak due to his poor retention; therefore, his contradiction is disregarded. The hadith has another corroborating report from ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, which has already appeared under no. 1367.

As for the hadith that al-Suyūṭī cited in al-Jāmiʿ, narrated by Aḥmad and al-Ṭabarānī from Abū Umāmah and attributed to the Prophet, with the wording:

“Whoever visits a sick person wades through mercy; when he sits with him, mercy envelops him. Part of completing the visit to a sick person is that one of you place his hand on the person’s face or hand and ask him how he is. And completing your greeting among yourselves is to shake hands.”

I say: Aḥmad recorded it in his Musnad, in separate form in two places (5/260 and 268), through ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Zaḥr, from ʿAlī ibn Yazīd, from al-Qāsim, from him.

I say: This is a very feeble chain of transmission. ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Zaḥr narrated from ʿAlī ibn Yazīd al-Alhānī, who was abandoned. Al-Tirmidhī recorded from it the words, “Part of completing the visit to a sick person …,” and said (2/122): “Its chain of transmission is not particularly sound.” Al-Ṭabarānī also recorded it in its entirety in al-Kabīr (7854) through the aforementioned route.

“Al-makhrafa”: a path between two rows of palm trees, through which one may pass wherever one wishes—that is, gathering fruit. It is also said that al-makhrafa means a road; that is, he is on a road that leads him to one of the roads of Paradise.” Al-Nihāyah.

1930 — “There is no evil omen, though good fortune may be found in three things: a woman, a horse, and a house.”