16 – Abū Hurayrah reports that whenever the Prophet ﷺ bade someone farewell he would say,

“I entrust Allah with your religion, your trust, and the conclusions of your deeds.”

Aḥmad recorded it (2/358) through Ibn Luhayʿah, from al-Ḥasan ibn Thawbān, from Mūsā ibn Wardān, from him.

I say: all the narrators in this chain are reliable, but Ibn Luhayʿah was of poor memory. Al-Layth ibn Saʿd and Saʿīd ibn Abī Ayyūb, however, related it from al-Ḥasan ibn Thawbān with the wording:

“I entrust you to Allah, in whose trust deposits are never lost.”

This version from Abū Hurayrah is more authentic and its chain is sound; Aḥmad also transmitted it (1/403). I later found that Ibn Luhayʿah himself narrated it with this wording as well in Ibn al-Sunnī, no. (501), and in Ibn Mājah (2/943, no. 2825). This confirms that his first version was erroneous.

Benefits derived from the ḥadīth

From this sound ḥadīth several points may be learned:

1. It is prescribed to bid farewell with the words, “I entrust Allah with your religion, your trust, and the conclusions of your deeds,” or to say, “I entrust you to Allah, in whose deposits are never lost.”

2. Shaking hands with one hand only, a practice mentioned in many aḥādīth,