We came to Wathila bin Asqa and said to him, "Narrate to us a hadith with no addition or omission."He became angry and said, "One of you recites the Quran while his copy hangs in his house, yet he still adds and omits."We said, "We only wanted a hadith you heard from the Prophet ﷺ."He said, "We came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ concerning a companion of ours who had made himself deserving of it, meaning the Fire, by committing murder. He said, 'Free a slave on his behalf, and Allah will free, for every limb of the slave, a corresponding limb of his from the Fire.'"
أتينا واثلة بن الأسقع، فقلنا له: حدثنا حديثا ليس فيه زيادة ولا نقصان، فغضب، وقال: إن أحدكم ليقرأ، ومصحفه معلق فى بيته، فيزيد وينقص. قلنا: إنما أردنا حديثا سمعته من النبي ﷺ. قال: أتينا رسول الله ﷺ في صاحب لنا أوجب- يعنى النار- بالقتل، فقال: أعتقوا عنه يعتق الله بكل عضو منه عضوا منه من النار.
Abu Dawud (3964) narrated it, from Isa bin Muhammad Ramli, who said, Damra narrated to us, from Ibrahim bin Abu Abla, from Ghurayf bin Daylami, and he mentioned it. Ahmad (16012), Hakim (2/212), and Bayhaqi (8/132–133) also narrated it, all of them through the hadith of Damra bin Rabia with his chain, similarly.Ghurayf bin Daylami is Ibn Ayyash bin Firuz Daylami, and he is sometimes attributed to his grandfather. No one narrated from him except Ibrahim bin Abu Abla, and no one declared him trustworthy except Ibn Hibban. That is why the Hafiz said in Taqrib, "Acceptable," meaning when corroborated.Abdullah bin Firuz Daylami corroborated him, and through his route it was narrated by Tahawi in his Mushkil (737), Ibn Hibban (4307), and Hakim (2/212). However, Hakim made Ghurayf a title of Abdullah bin Daylami, which is a mistake, for Ghurayf is Ibn Ayyash bin Firuz, that is, the nephew of Abdullah bin Firuz Daylami. That is why Mizzi mentioned, among the teachers of Ibrahim bin Abu Abla, Abdullah bin Daylami and Ghurayf bin Ayyash Daylami. This is a strong corroboration for Ghurayf.If this hadith is sahih, then it is among the qualifiers of Allah's saying, "And that man shall have nothing but what he strives for" [Najm 53:39], while Tahawi mentioned, through four routes, Abdullah bin Mubarak, Hani bin Abdul-Rahman, Yahya bin Hamza, and Malik bin Anas, that the Prophet ﷺ commanded those who had asked him about what they had asked him, concerning a man who had incurred the Fire, to instruct their companion to free a slave on his own behalf, so that it would be his ransom from the Fire.Tahawi favored the soundness of this wording because of the narration of four people, who are more entitled to careful preservation, among them Malik and Ibn Mubarak, so it does not need interpretation, except that there is some discussion regarding the narrations of some of them.