The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent him along with a small group to find a man from the tribe of Udhrah. He said, "If you are able to capture so-and-so, burn him with fire."They set out, and once they were out of his sight, he called out to them, or sent someone after them to bring them back. Then he said, "If you are able to capture him, kill him, but do not burn him with fire, for none punishes with fire except the Lord of fire."
أن رسول الله ﷺ بعثه ورهطا معه إلى رجل من عذرة فقال: إن قدرتم على فلان فأحرقوه بالنار فانطلقوا حتى إذا تواروا منه ناداهم أو أرسل في أثرهم فردوهم ثم قال: إن أنتم قدرتم عليه فاقتلوه ولا تحرقوه بالنار، فإنما يعذب بالنار رب النار.
Ahmad (16035, 16036) narrated it through several routes from Ibn Jurayj, who said, Ziyad bin Saad informed me that Abu Zinad said, Hanzala bin Ali informed me, from Hamza bin Amr Aslami, and he related it. Its chain is sahih. Bukhari said, "The hadith of Hamza bin Amr Aslami in this narration is more sahih." Ilal Tirmidhi Kabir (2/675).Abu Dawud (2673) and Ahmad (16034) narrated it through the route of Mughira bin Abdul-Rahman, from Abu Zinad, who said, Muhammad bin Hamza Aslami narrated to me, from his father, and he related something similar.So Mughira named Abu Zinad's teacher as Muhammad bin Hamza Aslami, while Ziyad bin Saad named him Hanzala bin Ali. Ziyad is far more reliable than Mughira. Muhammad bin Hamza Aslami had a number of narrators reporting from him, but no one explicitly affirmed his reliability except that Ibn Hibban mentioned him among the trustworthy narrators. This is why Ibn Hajar said in Taqrib, "Acceptable," meaning when corroborated. He was indeed corroborated, but that corroboration stems from the disagreement over Abu Zinad's source, as mentioned earlier.Nevertheless, Ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Bari (6/149) that Abu Dawud narrated it with a sahih chain, meaning that Abu Zinad had two possible teachers for this report, and neither one can be given preference over the other.