Aḥmad (5/168, 173), as did Abū Dāwūd (2/337), narrated it through Manṣūr, from Mujāhid, from Muwarriq, from Abū Dharr, who attributed it to the Prophet. This is an authentic chain meeting the conditions of the two Shaykhs. It has a corroborating report with the wording:
“Your slaves, your slaves! Feed them from what you eat, and clothe them from what you wear. If they commit an offence that you do not wish to forgive, then sell Allah’s servants and do not torment them.”
- “Your slaves, your slaves! Feed them from what you eat, and clothe them from what you wear. If they commit an offence that you do not wish to forgive, then sell Allah’s servants and do not torment them.”
In al-Majmaʿ (4/236), he said: “Aḥmad and al-Ṭabarānī narrated it from Yazīd ibn Jāriyah, and its chain includes ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, who is weak.”
I say: It is found in al-Musnad (4/35–36), through Sufyān, from ʿĀṣim—that is, Ibn ʿUbayd Allāh—from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, from his father, who attributed it to the Prophet.
Ibn Saʿd likewise narrated it in al-Ṭabaqāt (2/185), but it reads there: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, from his father,” thus placing it among the reports of Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Both ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jāriyah and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb narrated to ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, so perhaps the matter became confused for him: at times he narrated it from one, and at other times from the other.
Its narrators are trustworthy and, apart from this ʿĀṣim, are narrators used by al-Bukhārī. As al-Haythamī said, however, he is weak; al-Ḥāfiẓ followed him in al-Taqrīb. But the hadith has a corroborating report with the wording: