Is the hadith: “Do not greet with the greeting of the Jews, for the Jews greet with their fingers...” authentic?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ...So, what is your question?

The questioner : My question is whether the hadith about greeting with a gesture is authentic.

The Shaykh : This is authentic. This hadith is authentic, and the ruling is, of course, established and decisive. This falls under the chapter on the prohibition of imitating the People of the Book, and there are dozens of authentic hadiths in this chapter. Therefore... Muslims are influenced by Western customs... from the disbelieving lands at that time. These are not Islamic customs. “Peace be upon you” is prohibited when accompanied by a hand gesture. It is not permissible to combine the prescribed greeting with a hand gesture, and it is even more impermissible to make the greeting solely with a gesture of the palm or the finger without uttering the greeting. However, it is established in the Sunnah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) passed by some women... with his hand in greeting. So the scholars said that it is permissible to gesture with one’s hand to the person being greeted if they are far from you and cannot hear your greeting, or if they are deaf and cannot hear. You give them a gesture so they understand that you have greeted them, and they return the greeting to you. But with this, it should be that the Muslim’s gesture in greeting differs from the gesture of the disbelieving Jew or Christian. One should not do it this way, as the interpreter does today, nor that way. Rather, it should be a general gesture so that they understand you have greeted them, and that is enough.

The questioner : ... .