Ahmad 7761

Its chain is daif, disconnected, due to the ambiguity of the man from Mazina from whom Zuhri narrated. Moreover, as it stands in this place, it is mursal, having no apparent connection to the musnad of Abu Hurairah. Beyond this, it is also very abridged, indeed it is only a symbolic reference to a lengthy hadith with this chain from Abu Hurairah. I do not know how this disconnection and this brevity occurred in the Musnad, for it is established this way in all three original manuscripts, and likewise it is established in this state in Jami al-Masanid 5347. I found it complete and detailed in the tafsir of Abdul-Razzaq, page 58, and likewise Abu Dawud narrated it, 4450, from Muhammad bin Yahya, from Abdul-Razzaq, with this chain. And from Ahmad bin Salih, from Uyayna, from Yunus, from Zuhri, then he related it in full following the wording and narration of Maamar. Then Abu Dawud narrated it after that, 4451, via Muhammad bin Salama, from Ibn Ishaq, from Zuhri, with this chain. Bayhaqi narrated it, 8:247, via this narration of Abu Dawud, but did not mention its wording, referring instead to another narration before it. Tabari narrated it in his Tafsir, 6:150 [at length], via Yunus bin Bukayr, from Ibn Ishaq, from Zuhri, with this chain, at length. Likewise Bayhaqi narrated it, 8:242-247, via Yunus bin Bukayr. To complete the narration, we mention the hadith here from the tafsir of Abdul-Razzaq in its exact text, since he is the teacher from whom Imam Ahmad narrated it, and to confirm its wording and verify it by comparison with the narration of Abu Dawud via Abdul-Razzaq. This is the exact text as found in the Tafsir.Abdul-Razzaq, from Maamar, from Zuhri, who said, a man from Mazina, one of the companions of Ibn Musayab, narrated to us, from Abu Hurairah, who said, a Jewish man and woman committed adultery, so some of them said to one another, "Let us go to this prophet, for he is a prophet sent with leniency. If he gives us a ruling short of stoning, we will accept it, and we will use it as an argument before Allah, saying, this is the ruling of a prophet among Your prophets." So they came to the Prophet ﷺ, who was sitting in the masjid among his companions, and they said, "O Abu Qasim, what do you say about a man and woman among them who committed adultery?" He did not say a word to them until he came to their house of study. He stood at the door and said, "I ask you by Allah who sent down the Torah upon Musa bin Imran, what do you find in the Torah concerning one who commits adultery after having been married?" They said, "He is blackened and subjected to tajbiyah." They explained, tajbiyah means that the two adulterers are placed on a donkey with their backs turned to each other, and they are paraded around.He said, a young man among them fell silent. When the Prophet ﷺ saw him fall silent, he pressed him persistently with the demand under oath. So he said, "O Allah, since You have put us under oath, we indeed find stoning in the Torah." The Prophet ﷺ said, "So what was the first matter of Allah's command that you made light of?" He said, "A man closely related to one of our kings committed adultery, and the stoning was deferred for him. Then another man committed adultery within an ordinary family group, and they wanted to stone him, but his people intervened and said, we will not stone our companion until you bring your companion and stone him too. So they agreed among themselves on this alternative punishment." The Prophet ﷺ said, "Then I judge according to what is in the Torah." So he ordered the two of them to be stoned, and they were stoned.Zuhri said, it has reached us that this verse was revealed concerning them, "Indeed We sent down the Torah, in it is guidance and light, by which the prophets who submitted judged" [Maidah 5:44]. So the Prophet was among them.As for this unidentified man from Mazina, Zuhri described him, in the narration of Abu Dawud via Yunus bin Yazid Ayli from Zuhri, as one of those who pursue and retain knowledge. Despite this description, his being unidentified both as a person and in status necessitates the weakness of the hadith, for the narration of an unidentified narrator does not establish proof. See what has already passed in the Musnad of Ibn Abbas, 2368, and in the Musnad of Ibn Umar, 4498, 6094. See also the Tafsir of Ibn Kathir, 3:152, and Durr Manthur, 2:281-283.Regarding his statement, "until he came to their house of study," mudras, with kasra on the mim, sukun on the dal, and an alif after the ra, and mudras, similarly but with fatha on the ra without an alif, is the place where study is conducted, as stated in Lisan. Ibn Athir said, the pattern mafal is unusual in speech.Regarding his statement about tahmim and so on, Khattabi said in Maalim, 4285, tahmim means blackening the face and body. Tajbiyah is explained within the hadith itself. It seems its root may involve a hamza, being from yajbau, from tajbiah, meaning restraint and rebuke. One says, jabatuhu fajaba, meaning he rose up, and the hamza was then changed to ha. Tajbiyah can also mean that one's head is bent down, so it is possible that when the one carried on the donkey was made to do this, his head was bent down, and that act was called tajbiyah. It is also possible that this comes from al-jabh, which means confronting with something disliked, the root of jabh being to strike the forehead. One says, jabahtu the man, if you strike his forehead, just as you would say, rasahtu, if you strike his head.Regarding his statement, "alazza bihi al-nashid," it is from ilzaz, meaning persistence in something, continual effort, and insistence upon it. One says, alazza fulanun bi-fulanin, if he persists with him, and alazza bil-kalimati, if he persists in the statement. Lazza bish-shayi means he persisted in it, the forms fa'ala and af'ala carrying the same meaning. Al-nashid means raising the voice. In Lisan it states, Abu Abbas said regarding their expression, "nashadtuka Allah," that al-nashid means the voice, meaning, I ask you by Allah while raising my nashid, that is, my voice. In the narration of Abu Dawud it appears as al-nishda, with kasra on the nun and sukun on the shin, though fatha on the nun is also permissible. In Lisan, citing Muhkam, it states, nashadtuka Allah, tanshudu, nishdatan, and nishdanan, means I place you under oath by Allah. Al-usra means a man's clan and household, because he draws strength from them, according to Nihayah.Khattabi said in Maalim, regarding his statement, "then I judge according to what is in the Torah," this is used as evidence by those who hold the view, meaning the view of Abu Hanifa, except that the hadith comes from a man who is not known. It is possible that its meaning is, I judge according to what is in the Torah, as an argument against them, and that he actually judged according to what was in his own religion and law, so his mention of the Torah is not itself the basis of the ruling.As for the claim that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ judged them according to the ruling of the Torah, and that this is used as evidence permitting a judge to rule in their cases according to their own laws, this is an error on the part of whoever says it, a disgraceful claim, and reflects ignorance and negligence.First, this hadith is daif, as we have said, and likewise Khattabi and Munziri stated the same. Second, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ judged between them only according to what he judged between the Muslims, according to what Allah legislated for him and revealed to him, just as his Lord commanded him to do. His Lord forbade him from following their desires or referring back to them regarding their own law. He only referred them to the Torah in this particular incident, which is established through other than this weak route, in order to establish the proof against them and to expose their manipulation of their own religion and of every religion.We, however, have only been commanded to follow this Messenger ﷺ, who brought us a Book that stands as a guardian over what came before it of the Scripture, not to follow them nor to take anything from them. Read the verses from Surah Maidah, to some of which Zuhri alluded at the end of his narration. Read from the beginning of verse 41 of Surah Maidah, "O Messenger, do not let those grieve you who race toward disbelief" [Maidah 5:41], to the end of verse 50, and you will find within them, for example, "And We have sent down to you the Book in truth, confirming what came before it of the Scripture and as a guardian over it, so judge between them by what Allah has sent down and do not follow their desires away from the truth that has come to you" [Maidah 5:48], then His statement, "And that you should judge between them by what Allah has sent down, and do not follow their desires, and beware of them lest they seduce you away from some of what Allah has sent down to you" [Maidah 5:49].Is there any clarification beyond this? Whoever claims that it is permissible for a Muslim to judge among the People of the Book according to their own law, when they have no recognized law at all, but rather only the desires of their various sects and factions, has opposed the command of Allah, and his excuse will not be accepted if he offers one. If he persists in that, he has certainly left Islam. Whoever judges by other than what Allah has sent down, deliberately and knowingly, is a disbeliever, and whoever approves of that and accepts it is also a disbeliever, whether he judges by what is called the law of the People of the Book or by what is called man-made legislation, for all of it is disbelief and departure from the faith. May Allah protect us from that.