Hadith #156

Arabic Text

English Translation

Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Murrah, from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, who said: A Jewish man who had been blackened with charcoal and lashed was brought past the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He summoned them and said: "Is this how you find the punishment for the adulterer in your Book?" They said: "Yes." He called one of their scholars and said: "I adjure you by Allah who revealed the Torah to Mūsā — is this how you find the punishment for the adulterer in your Book?" He said: "No, by Allah. Were it not that you adjured me by this, I would not have told you. We find the punishment for the adulterer in our Book is stoning. But it became widespread among our nobles, so when we caught a noble we would let him go, and when we caught a weak person we would apply the punishment. So we said: Come, let us agree upon something we can apply to both noble and lowly alike. So we settled on blackening the face and lashing." the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "O Allah, I am the first to revive Your command when they had killed it." He ordered the man to be stoned. Then Allah عز وجل revealed: "O Messenger, let not those who hasten into disbelief grieve you" to His saying: "They say: If you are given this, then take it" — meaning: Go to Muḥammad, and if he rules blackening and lashing, then accept it, but if he rules stoning, then beware — up to His saying: "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, those are the disbelievers" [al-Māʾidah 5:44]. He said: This was about the Jews. Then: "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, those are the wrongdoers" [5:45], "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, those are the defiantly disobedient" [5:47]. He said: All of these were about the disbelievers.