He attributed it to the Prophet ﷺ, who said, "No Muslim loses three children to death and then enters the Fire, except for the fulfillment of the oath."
حدثنا سفيان عن الزهري عن سعيد
يبلغ به النبي ﷺ لا يموت لمسلم ثلاثة من الولد فيلج النار إلا تحلة القسم
Its isnad is sahih. Bukhari related it (3:98-99) from Ibn Madini, from Ibn Uyayna, with this same chain. Malik related it in Muwatta (p. 235), from Zuhri, with the same wording. It will come again at 10124, through the route of Malik. Likewise, Bukhari related it (11:472), and Muslim (2:294), through the route of Malik. Muslim also related it through the route of Ibn Uyayna, but he did not mention its wording in full, referring instead to the preceding narration of Malik.Tahillat al-qasam is pronounced with a fatha on the ta, a kasra on the plain ha, and a doubled lam carrying a fatha. Al-Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari, "It means that by which the oath is dissolved, that is, the oath itself. It is a verbal noun from halla al-yamin, meaning he expiated it. One says halala tahleelan, tahillatan, and tahillan, without the ha, the third being irregular."Ibn Athir said, "It is said that by 'the oath' he meant the words of Allah Almighty," "There is not one of you but will come to it" [Maryam 19:71]. "The Arabs say, 'He struck him tahleelan,' and 'he struck him tazeeran,' meaning he did not strike him severely. This is an example of something extremely small in quantity, meaning that one performs, of the act he has sworn to do, only the minimum amount by which his oath is fulfilled. For example, if someone swears to stay at a place, and then stays there only a brief while, that light stay suffices him, and that is the tahillah of his oath. So the meaning is, the Fire will only touch him with a light touch, like the tahillah of the oath of one who swears. By 'its tahillah' he means passing over the Fire and crossing through it, and the ta in tahillah is an extra letter."The explanation of this as referring to "passing over" will come at 7707, in the narration of Abdul-Razzaq from Mamar from Zuhri, at the end of which it says, "meaning passing over." This is from the tafsir of Zuhri, for Tayalisi related it (2303) from Zama from Zuhri, and at the end of it, Zuhri said, "It is as though he means this verse," "There is not one of you but will come to it, this is a matter decreed by your Lord" [Maryam 19:71]. The hadith will also come again at 10213, from Waki, from Zama, from Zuhri, but the tafsir of Zuhri is not mentioned in it.See Tafsir Ibn Kathir 5:391-392. See also what has already passed of the hadith of Ibn Masud at 4314.