imaam ahmad (may allaah have mercy on him) reported that humayd said: “al-waleed came to me and a friend of mine and said, ‘come with me, for you are younger than me and you know more about hadeeth.’ he took us to bishr ibn ‘aasim. abu’l-‘aaliyah said to him: ‘will you tell these two your hadeeth?’ he said, ‘‘uqbah ibn maalik told us, abu’l-nadr al-laythi said, bahz, who was one of his group, said: the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) sent an expedition to attack some people. a man drifted away from the people, and one of the (muslim) expedition followed him with his sword unsheathed. the man who had wandered off said, “i am a muslim,” but the muslim paid no attention to him, and struck him and killed him. word of this reached the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him), and he spoke out angrily against it. news of this reached the killer, and whilst the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) was delivering a speech, the killer said, “o messenger of allaah, by allaah he only said that to protect himself.” the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) turned away from him and the people around him, and continued with his speech. the man said again, “o messenger of allaah, he only said that to protect himself.” the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) again turned away from him and the people around him, and continued with his speech. the man did not put up with that; a third time he said, “o messenger of allaah, by allaah he only said that to protect himself.” the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) turned to him, and it was clear from his expression how upset he was. he said,

“allaah scorns the one who kills a believer.” three times.’” (al-musnad, 5/289. see also al-silsilat al-saheehah, 2/309)

al-nisaa`i (may allaah have mercy on him) reported from abu sa‘eed al-khudri that a man came from najraan to the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him), wearing a ring of gold. the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) turned away from him and said,

“you have come to me with an ember from the fire of hell in your hand.” (al-mujtaba, 8/170; saheeh sunan al-nisaa`i, 4793).

 ahmad reported a more detailed version of this from abu sa‘eed al-khudri: a man came from najraan to the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) wearing a ring of gold. the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) turned away from him and did not ask him about anything. the man went back to his wife and told her about it. she said, “there has to be a reason for that. go back to the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him).” so he went back, and threw away his ring and the garment he was wearing. when he asked permission to enter, it was given to him. he greeted the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him), who returned the greeting. he said, “o messenger of allaah, you turned away from me when i came before.” the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said:

“you came to me with a coal from the fire of hell in your hand.” he said, “o messenger of allaah, i came with a lot of coals.” he had brought some suits of clothing from bahrain. the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said: “what you have brought is not going to help us in any way (with regard to the hereafter). it is no more use than the rocks of al-harrah, but they are luxuries of this world.” the man said: “i said, ‘o messenger of allaah, explain this to your companions, so that they do not think you were angry with me for some reason.” the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) stood up and explained this, and said that the problem had been with his gold ring.” (al-musnad, 3/14).

according to a report narrated by ahmad (may allaah have mercy on him) from ‘amr ibn shu’ayb from his father from his grandfather, the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) saw one of his companions wearing a ring of gold, and turned away from him. the sahaabi threw it away and put on a ring of iron, and [the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him)] said,

“this is evil, this is the jewellery of the people of hell,” so he threw it away and put on a ring of silver, and the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said nothing. (al-musnad, 163. al-musnad edited by ahmad shaakir, no. 6518. he said its isnaad is saheeh).