Authentic. Ibn Hibbān narrated it (1562): al-Hasan ibn Sufyān al-Shaybānī informed us: Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Hanzalī narrated to us, from Mu‘ādh ibn Hishām, who said: My father narrated to me, from Qatāda, from Anas ibn Mālik, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)—and he cited the hadith.

I say: This chain of transmission is authentic. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, with the exception of al-Hasan ibn Sufyān, who was a trustworthy hadith master. However, al-Tirmidhī cited it in suspended form (1/318) from Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm—that is, Ibn Rāhawayh, the imam and hadith master—and said: “I heard Muhammad—meaning al-Bukhārī—say: ‘This is not reliably preserved. The correctly preserved version is from Mu‘ādh ibn Hishām, from his father, from Qatāda, from al-Hasan, directly from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in mursal form.’” Allah knows best.

272—(He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Treat your children equally; treat your children equally; treat your children equally.” Narrated by Ahmad, al-Nasā’ī, and Abū Dāwūd.) p. 221

Authentic. It was narrated by Ahmad (4/275, 278), Abū Dāwūd (3544), and al-Nasā’ī (2/132–133), through Hammād ibn Zayd, from Hājib ibn al-Fadl ibn al-Muhallab, from his father, who said: I heard al-Nu‘mān ibn Bashīr say—and he cited it as a report traced back to the Prophet. This chain of transmission is authentic, and its narrators are trustworthy. Muslim and others also narrated it through another route from al-Nu‘mān, but without the repetition. It is documented in al-Irwā’ (1598).

273—(The background to this hadith is that the wife of Bashīr ibn Sa‘d al-Ansārī asked him to single out her son, al-Nu‘mān ibn Bashīr, for a gift of property—such as a garden or a slave. She wanted this gift to be formally attested, so she asked him to have the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) bear witness to it. He went to him and said: “O Messenger of Allah, So-and-so’s daughter—his wife—asked me to give her son my servant—my slave—as a gift.” He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: “Does he have any siblings?” He replied: “Yes.” He asked: “Did you give all of them the same as you gave him?” He replied: “No.” He said: “This is not right, and I bear witness only to what is just.” Narrated by Muslim, Ahmad, and Abū Dāwūd.) p. 222