—al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad, p. 146; its chain is sound according to the criteria of his Sahih. Al-Nawawi remarks: “The prohibition of giving the salam by gesture applies only to someone who is able to speak both physically and legally; for anyone prevented from verbal reply—such as a person in prayer, one who is far away, a mute person, and likewise when greeting a deaf person—it is permissible.” He mentions this in Fath. I add: The wording of the hadith is general and, apart from the exceptions just noted, covers anyone who greets by gesture together with speech or by gesture alone. The latter is a worse violation, for it combines abandoning the sunnah of voicing the salam or its reply with imitating the unbelievers. Al-Nawawi, however, restricts the hadith to the second case, relying on a report whose authenticity is questionable. In al-Adhkar, p. 313, following the previously cited narration of ʿAmr b. Shuʿayb, he writes: “As for the report we narrated in the book of al-Tirmidhi from Asma bint Yazid—that the Messenger of Allah passed through the mosque one day while a group of women were seated, and he greeted them by signalling with his hand—al-Tirmidhi said: ‘A hasan hadith.’ This is to be understood as meaning that the Prophet combined speech with the gesture, as indicated by Abu Dawud’s version, which adds: ‘He greeted us verbally.’” I reply: The report of Asma is not sound and therefore cannot be used to permit what the unqualified hadith of Jabir and others forbids. Its chain ultimately rests on Shahr b. Hawshab, about whom there is dispute. Ibn ʿAdi says that his hadith is not relied upon nor taken for devotional practice. Al-Hafiz states in al-Taqrib: “Truthful, but prone to sending mursal reports and to many mistakes.” The frequency of his errors is obvious to anyone who examines his narrations; consequently, anything he narrates alone or over which there is disagreement is not accepted as proof, but serves only for corroboration. In this hadith he alone mentions the gesture, and even that is disputed: some transmitters affirm it from him, while others