Its chain of transmission is good (ḥasan), as al-Ḥāfiẓ [Ibn Ḥajar] states (1/195), and al-Bukhārī records it in suspended form.
Hence it may be said that embracing upon returning from a journey is excluded from the prohibition, because the Companions themselves practised it; if authentic, some of the previously cited reports are to be understood accordingly. Allah knows best.
As for kissing the hand, there are many aḥādīth and reports on the subject. Taken together they establish that it occurred with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. We therefore deem it permissible to kiss the hand of a scholar when the following conditions are met:
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It must not become a regular practice such that the scholar habitually extends his hand to his students and they routinely seek blessing from it. Although the Prophet ﷺ had his hand kissed, this happened only rarely, and what occurs only sporadically may not be turned into a continuous sunnah, as is well known from the juristic maxims.
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It must not lead the scholar to feel superior to others or to admire himself, which sadly is the case with some shaykhs today.
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It must not result in the abandonment of an established sunnah such as shaking hands. Shaking hands is legislated by the Prophet’s ﷺ words and actions and is a cause for the sins of those who do so to fall away, as is related in more than one ḥadīth. It must therefore not be set aside for the sake of something whose best ruling is mere permissibility.
161 – “Go and bury your father,” the Prophet ﷺ said to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. ʿAlī replied, “I will not bury him, for he died a polytheist.” The Prophet ﷺ repeated, “Go and bury him, and do not do anything until you return to me.” So I went, buried him, and came back while traces of dust and earth were still upon me. He ordered me to bathe, and then he supplicated for me with prayers for which I would not trade anything on the face of the earth.
Recorded by Abū Dāwūd (3124); al-Nasāʾī (1/282–283); Ibn Saʿd in al-Ṭabaqāt (1/123); Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf (4/95, 142 – Indian edition); Ibn al-Jārūd in al-Muntaqā (p. 269); al-Ṭayālisī (120); and al-Bayhaqī (3/398).