The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Breaking the bone of a deceased person is like breaking it while he is alive."
أن رسول الله ﷺ قال: كسر عظم الميت ككسره حيا.
Abu Dawud (3207) and Ibn Majah (1616) both narrated it through Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad Darawardi, who said, "Saad bin Saeed narrated to us, from Amra bint Abdul-Rahman, from Ayesha," and he related it.Darawardi was corroborated by Ibn Numayr, as found in Ahmad (24308), by Muhadir bin Muwarra, as found in Ibn Jarud (551), and by Ibn Jurayj (with an explicit statement of transmission), as found in Daraqutni (3413), all of them narrating from Saad bin Saeed with a similar chain.Saad bin Saeed is the brother of Yahya bin Saeed. He was criticized regarding his memory, and the summary of his case, as Ibn Adi said, is, "He has sound hadiths that come close to being reliable. I see no harm in his hadith to the extent of what he narrates."He was corroborated in raising it to the Prophet by his brother Yahya bin Saeed, and through his route it was narrated by Ibn Hibban (3167) and Bayhaqi (4/58).And by Abu Rijal, who is Muhammad bin Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Rijal, and through his route it was narrated by Ahmad (24739).And Haritha bin Abu Rijal is among those mentioned by Daraqutni in Ilal (14/408), and by Bukhari in Tarikh al-Kabir (1/150).Daraqutni, in his Sunan (3415), gave another chain, from Zuhayr bin Muhammad, from Ismail bin Abu Hakeem, from Qasim, from Ayesha, and he related it as a raised hadith.With these corroborations and others, this hadith is confirmed as sahih when raised to the Prophet.As for Bukhari, he preferred the stopped version, as stated in Tarikh al-Kabir, perhaps because, in his view, those who raised it were only two, as he mentioned, namely Saad bin Saeed and Haritha, and he said, "The non-raised version is more numerous."And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.As for what was narrated from Umm Salama, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said, "Breaking the bone of a dead person is like breaking the bone of a living person in terms of sin," this is daif.Ibn Majah (1617) narrated it from Muhammad bin Muamar, who said, "Muhammad bin Bakr narrated to us," who said, "Abdullah bin Ziyad narrated to us," who said, "Abu Ubayda bin Abdullah bin Zama informed me, from his mother, from Umm Salama," and he related it.Busiri said in Zawaid, "In it is Abdullah bin Ziyad, who is unknown, and he may be Abdullah bin Ziyad bin Saman Madani, one of those whose narrations are abandoned, for he belongs to his generation." Then he mentioned the hadith of Ayesha as a corroborating witness for it.