716 – Samurah ibn Jundub (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that “the Prophet ﷺ forbade selling one animal for another on deferred payment.” The five compilers recorded the report, and al-Tirmidhi and Ibn al-Jarud judged it sound. (1)

Hadith grading:
The hadith is ḥasan (good).

Al-Talkhīṣ states that Mālik transmitted it, and al-Shāfiʿī reported it from Mālik, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, as a mursal report; it is likewise found in Abū Dāwūd’s al-Marāsīl. Al-Dāraqutnī supplied a connected chain—Mālik, al-Zuhrī, Sahl ibn Saʿd—but declared that isnād weak and affirmed that the mursal version in the Muwaṭṭaʾ is the stronger. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr and Ibn al-Jawzī concurred with him.

A corroborating narration comes from Ibn ʿUmar, recorded by al-Bazzār, but its chain includes Thābit ibn Zuhayr, who is weak; al-Bazzār also related it through Abū Umayyah ibn Yaʿlā from Nāfiʿ, and Abū Umayyah is likewise weak.

A stronger supporting chain is transmitted by al-Ḥasan from Samurah, recorded by al-Ḥākim, al-Bayhaqī, and Ibn Khuzaymah.

Al-Tirmidhi remarked, “It is a ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ hadith, and al-Ḥasan’s hearing from Samurah is proven.” Ibn Ḥajar said in Fatḥ al-Bārī, “Its narrators are trustworthy, though there is a dispute over al-Ḥasan’s hearing; yet the multiple chains reinforce one another.”

In sum, taking all the routes together, the hadith is at least ḥasan, which is why Imam Aḥmad relied on it. Allah knows best.