Al-Ṭabarānī said, “No one has transmitted it with this chain except ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Sulaymān, and Yūsuf alone reports from him.”

I say: both are trustworthy narrators cited by al-Bukhārī, as are the rest of the transmitters, so the ḥadith has an authentic chain.

Al-Haythamī remarked (5 / 33), “Al-Ṭabarānī related it in al-Kabīr and al-Awsat, and its narrators are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ.”

Al-Ṭabarānī’s denial, however, is clearly open to question, for al-Ḥākim produced the report (4 / 231 and 233) through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Mubārak—Ḥammād b. Zayd—from ʿĀṣim, with the wording:

“Do you want to kill it many times? Why did you not sharpen your blade before you laid it down?”

Al-Ḥākim declared it “authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī,” and al-Dhahabī agreed. In another place he said, “according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs.”

25 – “Who has distressed this bird by taking its young? Return its young to it!”

Al-Bukhārī narrated this in al-Adab al-Mufrad (no. 382), as did Abū Dāwūd (no. 2675) and al-Ḥākim (4 / 239), from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbd Allāh, from his father, who said:

“We were travelling with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He went off to relieve himself, and we saw a red bird (ḥumrah) with two chicks. We took the chicks, and the mother began flapping her wings close to the ground. The Prophet ﷺ returned and said”—and he quoted the words above.

Abū Dāwūd’s wording adds: “He also saw an ant colony that we had burned, and he asked, ‘Who burned this?’ We said, ‘We did.’ He replied, ‘It is not fitting for anyone to punish with fire except the Lord of the Fire.’”