First: From Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, in a report attributed to the Prophet, with wording similar to the other route of Abū Hurayrah’s hadith.

Ahmad also recorded it (3/29) through Ibn Lahīʿah: Darrāj narrated to us from Abū al-Haytham, from him. You have already learned above the status of Ibn Lahīʿah and his shaykh.

Second: From Abū Dharr: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was sitting while two sheep were locking horns. One butted the other, causing it to miscarry. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, laughed, and he was asked, “What makes you laugh, Messenger of Allah?” He said, “I was amazed by it. By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, redress will surely be taken for her on the Day of Resurrection.”

Ahmad recorded it (5/173) through Layth, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Tharwān, from al-Huzayl ibn Shuraḥbīl, from him. This is a good chain for corroborating evidence and supporting routes. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of the authentic collections, apart from Layth, who is Ibn Abī Sulaym. He is weak because of his later-life confusion, but he was corroborated: al-Mundhir al-Thawrī narrated it from some of his shaykhs—in another version, “their shaykhs”—from Abū Dharr, in an abbreviated form containing: “Abū Dharr, do you know why they are butting one another?” He replied, “No.” He said, “But Allah knows, and He will judge between them.” Ahmad also recorded it (5/162).

I say: In my view, this chain is authentic, for all its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs, apart from the unnamed shaykhs, who were a group of Followers. Their unknown status may be overlooked because they jointly narrated this hadith. This is not undermined by the wording in the first version, “some of his shaykhs,” for there is no contradiction between the two versions: the lesser is included within the greater, and an addition by a trustworthy narrator is accepted. This other version escaped al-Haythamī, so after the detailed and abbreviated reports he said: