Two women from Huzayl got into a fight, and one of them threw a stone at the other, striking her in the abdomen and killing her along with the fetus she was carrying. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ruled that the blood-money for the woman was to be paid by the killer's paternal relatives, and that compensation for the fetus was a male or female slave.Someone objected, "How can compensation be owed for one who neither ate, nor drank, nor spoke, nor cried out at birth? Such a claim should be dismissed."The Prophet ﷺ, as Abu Hurairah related, said, "This man speaks like the brothers of the soothsayers."
حدثنا عبد الرزاق أخبرنا معمر عن الزهري عن أبي سلمة
اقتتلت امرأتان من هذيل فرمت إحداهما الأخرى بحجر فأصابت بطنها فقتلتها وألقت جنينا فقضى رسول الله ﷺ بديتها على العاقلة وفي جنينها غرة عبد أو أمة فقال قائل كيف يعقل من لا أكل ولا شرب ولا نطق ولا استهل فمثل ذلك يطل فقال النبي ﷺ كما زعم أبو هريرة هذا من إخوان الكهان
Its chain of transmission is sahih. Muslim [30] related it from Abd bin Humayd, from Abdul-Razzaq, with this same chain, but did not quote its wording, referring instead to the narration before it. Bukhari [10:182–184] related it through Layth, from Abdul-Rahman bin Khalid, from Zuhri, from Ibn Musayab and Abu Salama together, at length, longer than the version here. The narration of Yunus, which Bukhari related [12:223], is abridged, shorter than the version here. Part of it has already passed briefly [7216], through the narration of Malik from Zuhri, from Abu Salama, and we referred to this there.His saying, "nor did it cry aloud," comes from ihlal, which means raising the voice. The istihlal of an infant is the raising of its voice at birth.His saying, "yutall," is with the ya carrying damma, the plain ta carrying fatha, and the lam doubled. It comes from tall, meaning to nullify the blood (that is, to leave it uncompensated). In Lisan, Abu Zayd says, "talla damahu" and "atallahu Allah." One does not say "talla damahu" with fatha, though Abu Ubayda and Kisai do say it. One does say "atalla damahu." Abu Ubayda said there are three usages regarding it, "talla damahu," "tulla damahu," and "atalla damahu." This is the preferred reading for this word. Some related it as "batal," in the form of the past-tense verb from butlan (nullification, invalidity).Qadi Iyad said in Mashariq al-Anwar [1:88], "We have transmitted it both ways, with the ba carrying fatha, meaning with one dot, from batil, and it is also transmitted as yutall, with the ya carrying damma and two dots beneath it, from talla damahu, meaning when it is not pursued and is left unavenged." Both versions have been transmitted to us in Muwatta from Yahya bin Yahya Andalusi and Ibn Bukayr. I have seen in some manuscripts of Muwatta, from Ibn Bukayr, "We read it to Malik in his Muwatta both ways." Khattabi preferred the reading with the two-dotted ya over the reading with the single-dotted ba in this word, though most of the hadith scholars' narrations have it with the single-dotted ba. Bukhari mentioned it with the ba alone in the chapter on omens and divination, and likewise in Muslim's book, except in the narration of Ibn Abu Jafar, for we transmitted it from him, in the hadith of Abu Tahir and Harmala, with the ya. Qadi likewise reported this from the manuscripts of Sahihayn.What Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari [8:184] is that most of Bukhari's narrations have it with the two-dotted ya. He then said, "Kushmihani had it, in the narration of Ibn Musafir, as 'batal,' with the single-dotted ba carrying fatha and unshaddened, from butlan. This is how I saw it in a reliable manuscript from the narration of Abu Dharr." Iyad claimed that here all of them (meaning all the transmitters of Sahih Bukhari) had it with the single-dotted ba. Nawawi, in Sharh Muslim [11:178], reported both narrations as occurring in Sahihayn and elsewhere, then said, "Most of the manuscripts in our lands have it with the two-dotted letter."