Sunan Abi Dawud 4501

Muhammad ibn Awf al-Ta i narrated to us: Abd al-Quddus ibn al-Hajjaj narrated to us: Yazid ibn Ata al-Wasiti narrated to us, from Simak, from Alqamah ibn Wail, from his father, who said: A man came to the Prophet ﷺ with an Ethiopian man and said: This man killed my brother’s son. The Prophet ﷺ asked: How did you kill him? He said: I struck his head with an axe, but I did not intend to kill him. The Prophet ﷺ asked whether he had property to pay his blood money. He said no. The Prophet ﷺ asked whether, if he were released to ask people, he could gather the blood money. He said no. He asked whether his patrons would pay it for him. He said no. The Prophet ﷺ told the man to take him. The man left with him to kill him, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: If he kills him, he will be like him. The man went far enough that he could still hear the Prophet ﷺ and said: Here he is; decide whatever you wish about him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Release him—or, in another version, let him go—for he will bear his victim’s sin and his own, and will be among the people of the Fire. The man released him.