1243 – ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather — may Allah be pleased with him — relates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “A mukātab (a slave under a manumission contract) remains a slave so long as even one dirham of his contract is still outstanding.” It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd with a ḥasan chain (1); a shorter form is also found in the Musnad of Aḥmad and in the Sunan of the three compilers, and al-Ḥākim declared it sound (2).

Authenticity rating
The chain of the ḥadīth is ḥasan.
In al-Talkhīṣ he states: “Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī and al-Ḥākim transmitted it through several routes, while al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Ḥibbān also reported it through another chain, from ʿAṭāʾ, from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, with the wording: ‘Whoever is a mukātab for one hundred dirhams and pays all but an ūqiyyah still remains a slave.’”
Al-Nasāʾī commented, “This ḥadīth is munkar; in my view it is erroneous.” Ibn Ḥazm added, “This ʿAṭāʾ is al-Khurāsānī, and he never heard from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr.” Al-Shāfiʿī said regarding the report of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb: “I know of no one who transmitted this except ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, and I have not seen any scholar I trust who authenticates it.”

Even so, the compiler judged its chain to be ḥasan, al-Ḥākim ruled it ṣaḥīḥ, and Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī observed: “It is the narration of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh from a reliable Syrian shaykh, and Ibn ʿAyyāsh is trustworthy when narrating from the Syrians.”