1428 — “Take this one, but do not strike him, for I saw him praying when we were returning from Khaybar, and I have forbidden striking those who pray.”
Aḥmad (5 / 250 and 258) transmitted it through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, who said: Abū Ghālib narrated to us from Abū Umāmah that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, returned from Khaybar accompanied by two young servants. ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “O Messenger of Allah, let one of them serve us.” He said: “Take whichever of them you wish.” He said: “Choose one for me.” He said: “Take this one, but do not strike him, for I saw him praying...” He gave the other servant to Abū Dharr and said: “Treat him well.” Then he said: “O Abū Dharr, what became of the servant whom I gave you?” He replied: “You instructed me to treat him well, so I set him free.”
I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators, apart from Abū Ghālib, whose hadith is good.
Al-Suyūṭī attributed this hadith in al-Ziyādah ʿalā al-Jāmiʿ (folio 24 / 2) to al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān, on the authority of Abū Umāmah, with similar wording. As was his custom, he marked it with the abbreviation for al-Bayhaqī; but a copyist of al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr misread it, and it appears there (1 / 88 / 2) as the abbreviation for Ibn Ḥibbān.
1429 — “Tell your master that my Lord has killed his lord, Khosrow, this very night.”
Ibn Saʿd (1 / 258–260) transmitted it from his shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Aslamī, through several chains from a group of the Companions. He said: The accounts of some of them are incorporated into those of others. They said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, sent ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥudhāfah al-Sahmī—one of the six—to Khosrow, inviting him to Islam, and sent a letter with him. ʿAbd Allāh said: I delivered the Messenger of Allah’s letter to him, and it was read to him. Then he took it and tore it up. When news of this reached the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, he said: ‘O Allah, tear apart his kingdom.’ Khosrow then wrote to Bādhān, his governor in Yemen: ‘Send me two strong men from your side...’”