Chapter 214
Remembrance 1 from Chapter 214
The disapproval of gesturing when greeting, without any verbal expression
Context
WE RELATE FROM the book of at-Tirmidhī that ‘Amr ibn Shu‘ayb reported from his father, who reported from his grandfather, who narrated that the Prophet 
said: “He who imitates people other than us is not one of us. Do not imitate the Jews and the Christians [in their greeting]. The greeting of the Jews is to gesture with the fingers and the greeting of the Christians is to gesture with the shoulder [1]..” [2].At-Tirmidhī said that the isnād [of this hadith] is weak.
References
[1] Katif ‘a shoulder’. Other narrations have kaff, ‘the palm [of his hand]’, or akuff, ‘palms [of his hands]’.
[2] At-Tirmidhī (2696). Ibn Ḥajar grades it as ḥasan owing to its supporting narrations.