ibn al-Rabīʿ, from Hishām ibn Ḥassān, from Shuʿayb with the same wording, save that he mentioned prostration instead of embracing.

This chain is acceptable for supporting purposes: Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ is truthful, although he became confused in his later years; Abū Bilāl al-Ashʿarī—whose name is Mirdās—was declared weak by al-Dāraqutnī, while Ibn Ḥibbān counted him among the reliable narrators; and the two men above them are both trustworthy transmitters cited by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

Abū al-Ḥasan al-Muzakkī also produced this corroborative route, as Ibn al-Muḥibb noted in his marginalia on “Kitāb al-Muṣāfaḥah,” from whose autograph I have quoted.

The second corroboration: Kathīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh said, “I heard Anas ibn Mālik relate it, without mentioning bowing or embracing.”

Ibn Shāhīn recorded it in his “Rabāʿiyyāt” (172/2): “Muḥammad ibn Zuhayr told us; Mukhallad ibn Muḥammad told us; Kathīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh told us …”

Kathīr is weak, as al-Dāraqutnī stated. Al-Dhahabī remarked, “I do not regard his narrations as extremely objectionable.” Ibn ʿAdī cited ten ḥadīths from him and then said, “In some of what he relates there is material that is not preserved.”

I say: A narrator of his stature may still be cited for corroboration, if Allah wills, although I have found no biographical entry for the two transmitters beneath him in the chain.

The third corroboration: al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah reports from Anas—with an elevated (marfūʿ) attribution—the wording:

“A man must not bow to another man, and a man must not kiss another man.” They asked, “Should a man shake hands with another man?” He replied, “Yes.”

Al-Ḍiyāʾ related it in “al-Muntaqā” (23/1) through the chain: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abān → Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān → al-Muhallab, with the wording above.

I say: al-Muhallab is classed among the reliable governors, as stated in “al-Taqrīb”; nonetheless, the chain that leads to him is unsound, for ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abān has been abandoned—Ibn Maʿīn and others labelled him a liar, as al-Ḥāfiẓ records—so this report cannot be used as corroborative evidence.