Book 14: Emancipation

l-Gharif b. ‘Ayyash ad-Dailami ¹ said: We went to Wathila b. al-Asqa‘ and said, “Tell us a tradition which has no addition or omission.” He replied angrily, “One of you recites when his copy of the Qur’an is hung up in his house, and he makes additions and omissions.” We declared that all we meant was a tradition he had heard from the Prophet, and he said they had gone to God’s Messenger about a friend of theirs who deserved (i.e., hell) for murder, ² and he replied, “If you emancipate a slave on his behalf God will set free from hell a member of the body for every member of his.” Abu Dawud and Nasa’i transmitted it. 1. Mirqat, iii, 540 gives al-Gharif ad-Dailami but says it should correctly be Ibn ad-Dailami. It adds that Hakim in his Mustadrak says al-Gharif was a laqab of ‘Abdallah b. ad-Dailami, and that in Jami'-al-usul the name is given as al-Gharif b. ‘Ayyash ad-Dailami. This is the form in the Damascus edn. of the Mishkat, the one used in the translation above. It is also given by Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, viii, 245. 2. Mirqat, iii, 541 suggests that the reference may be to someone who had killed a man unintentionally.

Samura b. Jundub reported God’s Messenger as saying, “The most excellent sadaqa is intercession for which a slave is set free.” Baihaqi transmitted it in Shu'ab al-iman.