We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a military expedition when he noticed people gathered around something. He sent a man, saying, "Find out why these people have gathered."The man came back and said, "Around a slain woman."The Prophet ﷺ said, "She was not one who would have fought in battle."Khalid bin Walid was leading the vanguard, so the Prophet ﷺ sent a man and said, "Tell Khalid not to kill any woman or hired laborer."
كنا مع رسول الله ﷺ في غزوة، فرأى الناس مجتمعين على شيء، فبعث رجلا فقال: انظر على ما اجتمع هؤلاء؟ فجاء فقال على امرأة قتيل فقال: ما كانت هذه لتقاتل قال: وعلى المقدمة خالد بن الوليد فبعث رجلا فقال: قل لخالد: لا يقتلن امرأة ولا عسيفا.
Reported by Abu Dawud (2669), Nasai in Kubra (8571-8572), Ibn Majah (2842), and Ahmad (15992, 15993, 15994), and graded sahih by Ibn Hibban (4789) and Hakim (2/122), all of them through routes from Muraqqa bin Sayfi bin Rabah, from his grandfather Rabah bin Rabi, brother of Hanzala, who narrated it. The wording given here is that of Abu Dawud. Its chain is hasan because of Muraqqa bin Sayfi, for his hadith is hasan. Hakim said, "Sahih according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs." I say, it is not as he said, for Muraqqa bin Sayfi is not among the narrators used by the two Shaykhs.As for what has been narrated from the hadith of Hanzala bin Rabi, that is a mistake. It was reported by Ibn Majah (2842) and Ahmad (17610), through the route of Thawri, from Abu Zinad, from Muraqqa bin Abdullah bin Sayfi, from Hanzala the Scribe, who said, "We went out on a campaign with the Messenger of Allah," and then narrated it.The preserved and correct version is that it belongs to the hadith of Rabah bin Rabi, and Thawri erred in it by attributing it to the musnad of Hanzala the Scribe, as stated by more than one scholar. Among them are Abu Bakr bin Abu Shayba, as reported from him by Ibn Majah, Abu Hatim and Abu Zura, as found in Ilal (question 914), Bukhari in Tarikh al-Kabir (3/314), and Tirmidhi in Ilal al-Kabir (2/672). For this reason, when Ahmad recorded his hadith in the musnad of Hanzala the Scribe, he followed it with the mention of the hadith of Rabah bin Rabi. And Allah knows best.