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.
Ibn ‘Umar reported God’s Messenger as saying, “If anyone emancipates his share in a slave and has enough money to pay the full price for him, a fair price for the slave should be fixed, his partners given their shares, and the slave be thus emancipated; otherwise he is emancipated only to the extent of the first man’s share.”
‘Amr b. ‘Abasa reported the Prophet as saying, “If anyone builds a mosque that God may be mentioned in it, a house will be built for him in paradise; if anyone emancipates a Muslim, that will be his ransom from jahannam; if anyone develops a grey hair while in 'God’s path, it will be a light for him on the day of resurrection.”
