For he relied on the general rule concerning Ibn Lahīʿah’s hadiths and failed to notice that this was narrated from him by Ibn al-Mubārak, and is therefore authentic.

2194 — “Whoever imitates others is not of us. Do not imitate the Jews or the Christians, for the Jews’ greeting is to gesture with the fingers, while the Christians’ greeting is to gesture with the palm.”

Al-Tirmidhī narrated it (2696) from Ibn Lahīʿah, from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather, attributed to the Prophet. He said: “Its chain of transmission is weak. Ibn al-Mubārak narrated this hadith from Ibn Lahīʿah, but did not attribute it to the Prophet.”

I say: I found it through another route. Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ (p. 267—Ḥaram): Abū al-Musayyib Salām ibn Muslim narrated to us; Layth ibn Saʿd narrated to us, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, with the same report. However, he said: “I think it is attributed to the Prophet.” The narrators in this chain are trustworthy, apart from Salām ibn Muslim, whom I was unable to identify. He is not Salām ibn Muslim al-Baṣrī, who narrated from ʿAbd al-Karīm, from Ibrāhīm, and from whom Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl narrated, as stated in Narrator Criticism and Accreditation (2/1/261), for this one belongs to an earlier generation than him. He is the unidentified narrator meant by al-Haythamī’s statement in al-Majmaʿ (8/39): “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ, and it contains someone whom I do not know.”

However, the hadith has been transmitted in separate parts in reports that strengthen it. The first clause is supported by the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “When the Messenger of Allah conquered Makkah, he said:”