Sunan al-Shafi'i

Narrated from Sayyiduna Sahl bin Abi Khaythama (may Allah be pleased with him): Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Sahl (may Allah be pleased with him) was found murdered in a pit in Khaybar or in a well in Khaybar. So his brother, Sayyiduna Abdur Rahman bin Sahl (may Allah be pleased with him), and Sayyiduna Huwayyisah (may Allah be pleased with him), and Sayyiduna Muhayyisah (may Allah be pleased with him) went to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to present the case. Abdur Rahman bin Sahl (may Allah be pleased with him) wanted to speak, but the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Let the elder speak.” So Sayyiduna Muhayyisah (may Allah be pleased with him) spoke and said: “O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)! We found Abdullah bin Sahl murdered, and the Jews are a disbelieving and deceitful people; they are the ones who killed him.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked: “Will you swear fifty oaths and thus become entitled to the blood money?” They said, “O Messenger of Allah! How can we swear oaths about a matter which we did not witness and did not see with our own eyes?” So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Then the Jews will swear fifty oaths and be acquitted.” They said, “How can we accept the oaths of a polytheist people?” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) paid the blood money from his own side. Sahl (may Allah be pleased with him) says: One of those camels kicked me. Imam Shafi’i (may Allah have mercy on him) says: Sufyan (may Allah have mercy on him), when narrating, sometimes said: I do not know whether the oaths were started with the Ansar or with the Jews. So it was said to him: People say the option of oaths was first given to the Ansar. He said: It seems so. And many times, Sufyan (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated this hadith without any doubt.