ابن ماجہ · Hadith 2558

It was narrated that Bara' bin 'Azib said: "The Messenger of Allah passed by a Jew with a blackened face who had been flogged. He called them and said: 'Is this the punishment for the adulterer that you find in your Book?' They said: 'Yes.' Then he called one of their scholars and said: 'I adjure you by Allah Who sent down the Tawrah (Torah) to Musa Is this the punishment for the adulterer that you find in your Book?' . He said: 'No; if, you had not adjured me by Allah, I would not have to told you. The Punishment for the adulterer that we find in our Book is stoning, but many of our nobles where being stoned (because of the prevalence of adultery among them), so if we caught one of our nobles (committing adultery, we would let him go; but If we caught one of the weak among us, we would carry out the punishment on him. We said: "Come, let us agree. Upon something that we may Impose on both noble and weak alike. " So we agreed to blacken the face and whip them, instead ,of stoning.' The Prophet said: ‘0 Allah I am the first of those who revive Your command which they had killed off’, and he issued orders that (the man) be stoned”.

Translated by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan · Reviewed by Islamic University of Madinah · Published March 2020