“He would urge people to treat slaves well, saying: ‘Feed them from what you eat, clothe them from what you wear, and do not torment Allah’s creatures.’”
Al-Bukhārī narrated it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (29): “Shuʿbah ibn Sulaymān narrated to us: Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah narrated to us: al-Faḍl ibn Mubashshir narrated to us: I heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh say”—and he then cited it. This is a weak chain of transmission. Al-Faḍl ibn Mubashshir has some weakness, as stated in al-Taqrīb. I have not identified Shuʿbah ibn Sulaymān, and I fear that a scribal corruption may have occurred in his name. As for Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah, he is a trustworthy memorizer and among the narrators of the six canonical collections.
I then found that al-Bukhārī also recorded it elsewhere, pp. 30–31, saying: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maslamah narrated to us: Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah narrated to us,” with the same chain.
- “I advise you to show due modesty before Allah as you would before a righteous man among your people.”
Aḥmad narrated it in al-Zuhd (p. 46), as did Abū ʿArūbah al-Ḥarrānī in al-Ṭabaqāt (2/10/1—selected excerpts from it), al-Sulamī in Ādāb al-Ṣuḥbah (fol. 12/1), al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab (2/462/2), and al-Kharāʾiṭī in Makārim al-Akhlāq (p. 50), through two routes from al-Layth ibn Saʿd, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Abū al-Khayr Marthad, who heard Saʿīd ibn Yazīd al-Anṣārī relate that a man said: “O Messenger of Allah, advise me.” He then cited it.
I say: This is a good chain of transmission; all its narrators are trustworthy. There is, however, disagreement as to whether Saʿīd ibn Yazīd—who is Ibn al-Azwar—was a Companion. Abū al-Khayr affirmed this for him, as occurs in some routes of this hadith, and he knew this better than others. Al-Manāwī said in al-Fayḍ: “Al-Dhahabī said: ‘Abū al-Khayr al-Yazanī narrated from him and claimed that he had Companionship.’ End quote.
He said: ‘I said to the Prophet: Advise me.’ He then cited it. Al-Haythamī said: ‘Its narrators have been declared trustworthy, despite some weakness among them.’”