from Ḥuṣayn, from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, from Abū Umāmah and other Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said it. He said: “A good, authentic, singular hadith through this route.” He then said: “The hadith indicates that, for men, freeing male slaves is superior to freeing female slaves, because of his saying, peace and blessings be upon him: ‘Whoever frees a Muslim man will have him as his ransom from the Fire, each of his limbs compensating for one of his own limbs.’ The hadith is authentic through its various routes.”

I say: However, the majority of its chains revolve around Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, and its chain from him has been reported in several different ways. The first is this one: it makes it a report of Abū Umāmah. ʿImrān ibn ʿUyaynah alone narrated it in this manner, and his retention has been criticized. Al-Ḥāfiẓ alluded to this when he said: “Truthful, but prone to errors.” Therefore, declaring his hadith authentic is not acceptable; at most, it may be graded good when he is not contradicted.

The second: Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī said in his Musnad (1198): “Shuʿbah narrated to us from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, who said: I heard Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd narrate from Shuraḥbīl ibn al-Simṭ, who said: Kaʿb ibn Murrah—or Murrah ibn Kaʿb al-Bahazī—was asked, ‘Relate to us a hadith that you heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him—may Allah bless your father—and be careful.’ He said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him...’” Then he cited something similar.

Al-Bayhaqī recorded it through al-Ṭayālisī’s route (10/272). Abū Dāwūd also recorded it in his Sunan (3967), al-Ṭaḥāwī in al-Mushkil (1/312), Aḥmad (4/235), and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd in al-Muntakhab (fols. 56–57), through other routes from Shuʿbah with this chain. Al-Ḥāfiẓ attributed it in al-Fatḥ (5/104) to al-Nasāʾī and said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic. Al-Tirmidhī has a similar report from Abū Umāmah, and al-Ṭabarānī has one from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf; its narrators are reliable.”