Conversely, some scholars deemed weak al-Bukhari’s connected narration through Abdullah ibn Salih; the answer to this is clear from Ahmad’s transmission of it through another route. See also my comments on Mukhtasar al-Bukhari (2/20).
2846 — “Indeed, ‘alayka al-salam’ (‘Peace be upon you’) is the greeting of the dead; indeed, ‘alayka al-salam’ is the greeting of the dead”—three times. “When a man meets his Muslim brother, let him say: al-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah (Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah).”
Al-Tirmidhi (2/120) narrated it through Khalid al-Hadhdha, from Abu Tamimah al-Hujaymi, from a man of his people, who said: “I sought the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—but could not find him. So I sat down, when suddenly there was a group of people, among whom he was, though I did not recognize him. He was reconciling a dispute between them. When he had finished, some of them rose with him and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah!’ When I saw this, I said, ‘Alayka al-salam, O Messenger of Allah! Alayka al-salam, O Messenger of Allah! Alayka al-salam, O Messenger of Allah!’” He then mentioned the hadith. The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—then replied to me: “Wa alayka rahmatullah (And upon you be Allah’s mercy), wa alayka rahmatullah, wa alayka rahmatullah.” He said: “This is a good, authentic hadith.”
Al-Hakim (4/186) also narrated it through Abu al-Salil, from Abu Tamimah, from Jabir ibn Sulaym al-Hujaymi, who said: “I met the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—in one of the streets of Medina, wearing a cotton waist-wrapper with loose edges. I said: ‘Alayka al-salam, O Muhammad,’ or, ‘O Messenger of Allah!’ He said: ‘Alayka al-salam is the greeting of the dead; alayka al-salam is the greeting of the dead; alayka al-salam is the greeting of the dead. Salam alaykum, salam alaykum, salam alaykum’—that is, say it in this manner.” He said: “I then asked him about the waist-wrapper, so he bent over and grasped the bulk of his calf, saying: ‘Here; and if you insist, then here, above the”