I traveled, or he said, someone who traveled with the zakat collector of the Prophet ﷺ informed me, that in the covenant of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ it was written that he should not take a suckling animal still nursing milk, nor combine what is separated, nor separate what is combined.He used to come to the watering places when the sheep came to drink and would say, "Pay the zakat due on your wealth."One of the men brought forward a kawmaa she-camel.I said, "Abu Salih, what is a kawmaa?"He replied, "One with a large hump."The collector refused to accept it.The man said, "I would like you to take the best of my camels."But the collector refused to accept it. So the man haltered another camel for him, of lesser quality, but he refused to accept that one as well. Then the man haltered yet another, of still lesser quality, and the collector accepted it, saying, "I am taking this one, but I fear that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ may be displeased with me and say, 'You went to a man and picked out the best of his camels.'"
حدثنا مسدد حدثنا أبو عوانة عن هلال بن خباب عن ميسرة أبي صالح
سرت أو قال أخبرني من سار مع مصدق النبي ﷺ فإذا في عهد رسول الله ﷺ أن لا تأخذ من راضع لبن ولا تجمع بين مفترق ولا تفرق بين مجتمع وكان إنما يأتي المياه حين ترد الغنم فيقول أدوا صدقات أموالكم قال فعمد رجل منهم إلى ناقة كوماء قال قلت يا أبا صالح ما الكوماء قال عظيمة السنام قال فأبى أن يقبلها قال إني أحب أن تأخذ خير إبلي قال فأبى أن يقبلها قال فخطم له أخرى دونها فأبى أن يقبلها ثم خطم له أخرى دونها فقبلها وقال إني آخذها وأخاف أن يجد علي رسول الله ﷺ يقول لي عمدت إلى رجل فتخيرت عليه إبله
[Its chain is daif]. Nasai narrated it in the chapter on zakat, in the section on combining what is separate and separating what is combined, hadith 2459, from the hadith of Hilal bin Khabab with this wording. Ibn Mulaqqin graded it hasan in Tuhfat al-Muhtaj, 903.* Maysara was deemed reliable by Ibn Hibban alone.