"If you were forgiven for what you do to the animals, you would be forgiven much." It was recorded by Aḥmad (6/441): Ḥaytham ibn Khārijah narrated to us, saying: Abū al-Rabīʿ Sulaymān ibn ʿUtbah al-Sulamī informed us from Yūnus ibn Maysarah ibn Ḥalbas from Abū Idrīs from Abū al-Dardāʾ from the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), and he mentioned it. I say: This isnād is ḥasan; its men are trustworthy and known, except for Sulaymān ibn ʿUtbah, who is the Damascene al-Dārānī, about whom there is disagreement. Aḥmad said: I do not know him. Ibn Maʿīn said: He is nothing. Daḥīm said: Trustworthy. He was also deemed trustworthy by Abū Mushir, al-Haytham ibn Khārijah, Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, and Ibn Ḥibbān. Although those who deemed him trustworthy are more, they are Damascenes like the one being discussed, so they know him better than others from foreigners, and Allāh knows best. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in "al-Taqrīb": "Truthful, with oddities." ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said in his additions to "al-Musnad" (6/442): Ḥaytham ibn Khārijah narrated to me from Abū al-Rabīʿ all these ḥadīths, except that he made the ḥadīth "If you were forgiven for what you do..." mawqūf. My father narrated it to us from him as marfūʿ. I say: The father is greater than the son and more preserving, and all are a proof. It is not unlikely that he might sometimes be active and raise the ḥadīth and at other times not be active and stop it. It appears that Ḥaytham narrated it to Aḥmad as marfūʿ