Kitāb al-Zuhd 1, narration 121

Translation

4.Faḍālah narrated from Abān, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Ṭalḥah, from Abū ʿAbdillāh (a) who said, “A man from the Banī Fahd [once] passed by the Messenger of Allah (ṣ) as he was beating a slave of his, and the slave was crying out, ‘I seek refuge with Allah!’ yet the man did not desist from [beating] him. When the slave saw the Messenger of Allah (ṣ), he said, ‘I seek refuge with Muḥammad!’ so the man stopped beating him. [Seeing this,] the Messenger of Allah (ṣ) said, ‘He seeks refuge with Allah but you do not leave him, yet when he seeks refuge with Muḥammad you leave him? This is while one who seeks refuge with Allah is more deserving of being pardoned than [one who seeks refuge with] Muḥammad!’ So the man [felt remorse and] said, ‘He is free for the sake of Allah!’ The Messenger of Allah (ṣ) said, ‘By the One who sent me as a Prophet with truth, if you had not done so, your face would have fallen into the heat of the Fire.’”

Translation: Shaykh Tahir Ridha Jaffer — published with the edition, reproduced verbatim.