English Translation

Abu Mu'awiyah told us: al-A'mash told us, from Abd Allah ibn Murrah, from al-Bara' ibn Azib, who said: A Jew, blackened [with soot] and flogged, was brought past the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. He summoned them and said, "Is this how you find the punishment for fornication in your Book?" They said, "Yes." So he summoned a man of their scholars and said, "I adjure you by Allah, who revealed the Torah to Moses, is this how you find the punishment for fornication in your Book?" He said, "No, by Allah—and were it not that you have adjured me thus, I would not tell you—we find the punishment for fornication in our Book to be stoning, but it became widespread among our nobles, so when we caught a noble, we would leave him, but when we caught a weak person, we would carry out the punishment on him. So we said, 'Come, let us agree upon something we can apply equally to noble and lowly,' so we agreed on blackening and flogging." The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "O Allah, I am the first to revive Your command after they had killed it." He said: Then he ordered him, and he was stoned. Then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed: "O Messenger, let not those who hasten into disbelief grieve you" up to His saying, "They say: If you are given this, take it"—meaning they say, "Go to Muhammad; if he gives you the ruling of blackening and flogging, take it, but if he gives you the ruling of stoning, then beware"—up to His saying, "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, those are the disbelievers"—he said this was concerning the Jews—up to His saying, "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, those are the wrongdoers," "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, those are the wicked." He said: All of these are about the disbelievers.