1470), as well as in al-Muʿjam al-Ṣaghīr (p. 8, Indian edition, no. 934, al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr). In al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, he added: “He embraced him.”

The other of the two routes referred to is that mentioned by Imam al-Baghawī in Sharḥ al-Sunnah (12/292), following the mursal hadith: “It is reported from al-Bayāḍī that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, went out to receive Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, embraced him, and kissed him between the eyes.” I have not identified this al-Bayāḍī, though a number of Companions are affiliated with the Bayāḍī lineage; see al-Ansāb and Tāj al-ʿArūs. Nor have I found its chain of transmission to him.

The commentator on Sharḥ al-Sunnah made a gross error when he said: “Abū Dāwūd (5220) narrated it in the Book of Manners, in the chapter ‘Kissing between the Eyes’; its narrators are trustworthy, but it is mursal.” In fact, what Abū Dāwūd has in that chapter under the number cited is the previously mentioned hadith of al-Shaʿbī, which several scholars attributed to him, including Abū Dāwūd under that very number.

There is a third route that is unfit to serve as corroboration. I mention it only to clarify its condition; what has preceded is otherwise sufficient. It is narrated by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: “When Jaʿfar and his companions arrived, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, went out to receive him and kissed him between the eyes.” Ibn ʿAdī narrated it (6/220), and al-Bayhaqī narrated it through him. Ibn ʿAdī said: “Abū Qatādah al-Ḥarrānī narrated it from al-Thawrī, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, saying: from ʿAmrah, from ʿĀʾishah.”