Hadith Twenty-Eight:
The trustworthy shaykh Zayn al-Dīn Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Abī Tāhir Ismā‘īl ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Anmātī informed us, as it was read to him while I listened in Rajab 668 AH, as did Abū Hāmid ibn al-Sābūnī and al-Rashīd Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-‘Āmirī. They said:
Abū al-Qāsim ‘Abd al-Samad ibn Muhammad ibn Abī al-Fadl al-Harastānī informed us: Abū Muhammad Tāhir ibn Sahl ibn Bishr al-Isfarāyīnī informed us: Abū al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Bakr ibn ‘Uthmān al-Azdī informed us: Abū al-Hasan Ahmad ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Zurayq informed us, from a selection made by Khalaf, the hadith master: Abū Muhammad ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hajjāj ibn Rishdīn al-Mahdī narrated to us, as it was read to him: Abū ‘Amr al-Hārith ibn Miskīn narrated to us: Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from his father, that Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“Kill snakes, including the two-striped and the short-tailed varieties, for these two destroy eyesight and cause miscarriages.”
Ibn ‘Umar used to kill every snake. Abū Lubābah—or Zayd ibn al-Khattāb—saw him pursuing a snake and said to him:
“Killing snakes that live in houses has been forbidden.”