ʿĀmir narrated: al-Rabīʿ narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Muhājir related to me from Yūnus ibn Ḥalbas, from Abū Idrīs, from Abū al-Dardāʾ, who said:

The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—passed by a people’s refuse heap, in which there was a dead lamb, and said:

“Do its owners have any use for it?”

They replied, “Messenger of Allah, had its owners had any use for it, they would not have thrown it away.” He then said ... and mentioned the hadith.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs, except Muḥammad ibn ʿĀmir—the Antiochene. A number of hadith masters, including al-Nasāʾī, narrated from him, and al-Nasāʾī declared him trustworthy. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said likewise.

Al-Mundhirī mentioned the hadith in al-Targhīb (4/101/39), on the authority of Abū al-Dardāʾ, and said:

“Al-Bazzār narrated it, and al-Ṭabarānī narrated a similar report on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar in al-Kabīr; the narrators of both are trustworthy.”

Al-Haythamī said the same (10/278), though he also attributed it to al-Awsaṭ. It is found there (3/433/2934), and its chain includes Suqayr, the father of Bakkār. No one besides Ibn Ḥibbān (4/350) declared him trustworthy, and no one narrated from him except his son. It does not contain the words, “So let me not find that it has destroyed ...,” and so forth.

There are many hadiths, narrated from a group of Companions, without this addition. I have documented a selection of them in al-Ṣaḥīḥah (2482).

I then added: Al-Bazzār said after the hadith:

“This hadith has been narrated through several routes. The strongest version is that narrated by Abū al-Dardāʾ; its chain is authentic, and its narrators are Syrians. It contains the addition: ‘So let me not find that it has destroyed any one of you.’ ...”

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