Imām Aḥmad also reported:
Suraij ibn al-Nuʿmān narrated to us; Hushaym narrated to us; Mujālid informed us, from al-Shaʿbī, who said: al-Ashʿath ibn Qays related:
“I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with the Kindah delegation. He asked me, ‘Do you have any children?’ I replied, ‘A boy was born to me on my way here, from the daughter of Jamd, and I would have preferred that, in his place, the people had simply eaten their fill.’ He said, ‘Do not say that, for among them are the delight of the eye and a reward when they are taken. Yet if you insist on such words, know that children are indeed a source of cowardice and sorrow—truly, they are a source of cowardice and sorrow.’”
Aḥmad alone transmits this report, and its chain is sound and reliable.

The Arrival of al-Aʿshā of Banū Māzin before the Prophet ﷺ
ʿAbd Allāh, the son of Imām Aḥmad, said: al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-ʿAnbarī narrated to me; Abū Salamah ʿUbayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥanafī narrated to us; he said: al-Junayd ibn Umayn ibn Dhurwah ibn Naḍlah ibn Ṭarīf ibn Nahṣal al-Ḥirmazī narrated to me; my father Umayn narrated from his father Dhurwah, from his father Naḍlah, that a man among them known as al-Aʿshā—his personal name was ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Aʿwar—had a wife called Muʿādhah. In the month of Rajab he travelled from Hajar to obtain provisions for his household. While he was away, his wife fled in defiance of him and sought the protection of a man named Muṭarrif ibn Nahshal ibn Kaʿb ibn Qumaythiʿ ibn Dhulaf ibn Ahḍam ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥirmaz, who sheltered her. When al-Aʿshā returned he did not find her in his home and learned that she had sought refuge with Muṭarrif. He went to him and said, “Cousin, is my wife Muʿādhah with you? Hand her over to me.” Muṭarrif replied, “She is not with me, and if she were I would not hand her over to you.” Muṭarrif was the stronger of the two.

Al-Aʿshā then set out and came to the Prophet ﷺ, seeking his protection, and he began to recite:
“O master of mankind and judge of the Arabs,
To you I bring a complaint of grievous wrong among wrongs.”