Muhammad ibn Sirin disliked shaking hands, so I mentioned this to al-Sha‘bi, who said: “When the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, met one another, they would shake hands; and when they returned from a journey, they would embrace one another.”

Al-Bayhaqi narrated it in his al-Sunan (7/100), with a good chain of transmission, as stated by the hadith master Ibn Muflih al-Hanbali in al-Adab al-Shar‘iyyah (2/272). It is corroborated by what al-Tahawi narrated in Sharh Ma‘ani al-Athar (4/28, edited by our colleague Muhammad Zuhri al-Najjar), through Abu Ghalib, from Umm al-Darda, who said: “Salman came to us and said, ‘Where is my brother?’ I replied, ‘In the mosque.’ So he went to him, and when he saw him, he embraced him.”

I say: Its chain of transmission is good.

The Jurisprudence of the Hadith: Two benefits are derived from this hadith: first, shaking hands upon meeting; and second, embracing after returning from a journey. Each is supported by reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. As for the first, there are many well-known hadiths concerning it, both from his practice, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and from his statements. Some of them have already appeared in this “series,” under numbers 160, 529, 530, 2004, and 2485. See al-Targhib (3/270–271) and Ibn Muflih’s al-Adab al-Shar‘iyyah (2/277).

As for the second, there is the hadith of Jabir, may Allah be pleased with him: “When Ja‘far returned from Abyssinia, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, embraced him.”