Abu Qilaba reported,

Umar bin Abdul-Aziz one day brought out his couch for the people, then granted them permission to enter. When they came in, he asked, "What do you say about Qassama?"They replied, "We hold that retaliation through Qassama is valid, and the caliphs before you have carried out retaliation based on it."He said to me, "What do you say, Abu Qilaba?" and he placed me before the people.I said, "Commander of the Faithful, you have here the chiefs of the army and the nobles of the Arabs. Tell me, if fifty of them testified against a married man in Damascus that he had committed adultery, but they had not actually witnessed it, would you stone him?"He said, "No."I said, "And if fifty of them testified against a man in Homs that he had stolen, without having seen him do it, would you cut off his hand?"He said, "No."I said, "By Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never put anyone to death except for one of three offenses. A man who killed and was killed in retaliation, a man who committed adultery after marriage, or a man who waged war against Allah and His Messenger and apostatized from Islam."The people said, "But did Anas bin Malik not narrate that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ cut off hands for theft, branded eyes with hot iron, and then cast the offenders out in the sun?"I said, "I will tell you the hadith of Anas. Anas told me that a group of eight men from Ukl came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and pledged allegiance to him on Islam. They found the climate of Medina unhealthy and their bodies became sick, so they complained of that to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He said, 'Why do you not go out with our shepherd among his camels and drink some of their milk and urine?' They said, 'Yes.' So they went out and drank from the camels' milk and urine and recovered. Then they killed the shepherd of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and drove off the camels. Word of this reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who sent men in pursuit. They were caught and brought back, and he ordered that their hands and feet be cut off, their eyes branded with hot iron, and that they be cast out in the sun until they died."I said, "What could be more serious than what these men did? They apostatized from Islam, killed, and stole."Anbasa bin Saeed said, "By Allah, I have never heard the like of this day."I said, "Are you rejecting my hadith, Anbasa?"He said, "No, you have related the hadith just as it is. By Allah, this army will continue to be in good standing as long as this old man lives among them."I said, "And there was a precedent for this from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. A group of the Ansar came to visit him and were conversing with him. One of them went out ahead of the others and was killed. Then the rest went out and found their companion writhing in his blood. They returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, 'Messenger of Allah, our companion was sitting and talking with us, then he went out before us, and we found him writhing in his blood.'The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went out and asked, 'Whom do you suspect or believe killed him?'They said, 'We think the Jews killed him.'He sent for the Jews and summoned them, and asked, 'Did you kill this man?'They said, 'No.'He said, 'Will you accept the oaths of fifty of the Jews swearing that they did not kill him?'They said, 'They would not care if they killed all of us and then swore.'He said, 'Then will you take the blood-money on the basis of oaths from fifty of yourselves?'They said, 'We will not swear.' So he paid the blood-money himself."I said, "And in the days of Jahiliyya, the tribe of Huzayl had disowned one of their members. He came one night to a household from Yemen at Bathaa. One of the men of the household woke up to him, struck him with a sword, and killed him. Then Huzayl came, seized the Yemeni man, and brought him before Umar during the pilgrimage season, saying, 'He killed our man.'The Yemeni said, 'They had disowned him.'Umar said, 'Let fifty men of Huzayl swear that they had not disowned him.' Forty-nine of them swore the oath, and one of their men arrived from Syria, and they asked him to swear. He bought himself out of the oath for a thousand dirhams, and they put another man in his place. Umar handed the killer over to the brother of the slain man, and his hand was bound to the brother's hand.The two of them set out together, along with the fifty who had sworn. When they reached Nakhla, rain caught them, and they entered a cave in the mountain. The cave collapsed on the fifty who had sworn, and they all died. The two bound men escaped, but a stone followed them and broke the leg of the brother of the slain man. He lived for a year and then died."I said, "And Abdul-Malik bin Marwan once carried out retaliation based on Qassama, then regretted what he had done. He ordered that the fifty who had sworn the oath be struck from the army register and exiled to Syria."

عن أبي قلابة

أن عمر بن عبد العزيز أبرز سريره يوما للناس، ثم أذن لهم فدخلوا، فقال: ما تقولون في القسامة؟ قالوا: نقول: القسامة القود بها حق، وقد أقادت بها الخلفاء. قال لي: ما تقول يا أبا قلابة ونصبنى للناس. فقلت: يا أمير المؤمنين عندك رءوس الأجناد، وأشراف العرب، أرأيت لو أن خمسين منهم شهدوا على رجل محصن بدمشق أنه قد زنى، لم يروه أكنت ترجمه؟ قال: لا. قلت: أرأيت لو أن خمسين منهم شهدوا على رجل بحمص أنه سرق أكنت تقطعه ولم يروه؟ قال: لا. قلت: فوالله ما قتل رسول الله ﷺ قط إلا في إحدى ثلاث خصال: رجل قتل بجريرة نفسه فقتل، أو رجل زنى بعد إحصان، أو رجل حارب الله ورسوله وارتد عن الإسلام. فقال القوم: أو ليس قد حدث أنس بن مالك أن رسول الله ﷺ قطع في السرق وسمر الأعين، ثم نبذهم في الشمس؟ فقلت: أنا أحدثكم حديث أنس، حدثني أنس أن نفرا من عكل ثمانية قدموا على رسول الله ﷺ فبايعوه على الإسلام، فاستوخموا الأرض فسقمت أجسامهم، فشكوا ذلك إلى رسول الله ﷺ قال: أفلا تخرجون مع راعينا فى إبله، فتصيبون من ألبانها وأبوالها؟ قالوا: بلى، فخرجوا فشربوا من ألبانها وأبوالها فصحوا، فقتلوا راعي رسول الله ﷺ، وأطردوا النعم، فبلغ ذلك رسول الله ﷺ فأرسل في آثارهم، فأدركوا فجيء بهم، فأمر بهم، فقطعت أيديهم وأرجلهم، وسمر أعينهم، ثم نبذهم في الشمس حتى ماتوا قلت: وأى شيء أشد مما صنع هؤلاء؟ ارتدوا عن الإسلام وقتلوا وسرقوا. فقال عنبسة بن سعيد: والله إن سمعت كاليوم قط. فقلت أترد علي حديثى يا عنبسة؟ قال: لا، ولكن جئت بالحديث على وجهه، والله لا يزال هذا الجند بخير ما عاش هذا الشيخ بين أظهرهم. قلت: وقد كان في هذا سنة من رسول الله ﷺ دخل عليه نفر من الأنصار فتحدثوا عنده، فخرج رجل منهم بين أيديهم فقتل، فخرجوا بعده، فإذا هم بصاحبهم يتشحط في الدم، فرجعوا إلى رسول الله ﷺ فقالوا: يا رسول الله صاحبنا كان تحدث معنا، فخرج بين أيدينا، فإذا نحن به يتشحط فى الدم. فخرج رسول الله ﷺ فقال: بمن تظنون أو ترون قتله قالوا: نرى أن اليهود قتلته. فأرسل إلى اليهود فدعاهم. فقال: آنتم قتلتم هذا؟ قالوا: لا. قال: أترضون نفل خمسين من اليهود ما قتلوه. فقالوا: ما يبالون أن يقتلونا أجمعين ثم ينتفلون. قال: أفتستحقون الدية بأيمان خمسين منكم. قالوا: ما كنا لنحلف فوداه من عنده. قلت: وقد كانت هذيل خلعوا خليعا لهم في الجاهلية فطرق أهل بيت من اليمن بالبطحاء فانتبه له رجل منهم فحذفه بالسيف فقتله، فجاءت هذيل فأخذوا اليماني فرفعوه إلى عمر بالموسم وقالوا: قتل صاحبنا. فقال: إنهم قد خلعوه فقال: يقسم خمسون من هذيل ما خلعوه. قال فأقسم منهم تسعة وأربعون رجلا، وقدم رجل منهم من الشام فسألوه أن يقسم فافتدى يمينه منهم بألف درهم، فأدخلوا مكانه رجلا آخر، فدفعه إلى أخى المقتول فقرنت يده بيده، قالوا: فانطلقا والخمسون الذين أقسموا حتى إذا كانوا بنخلة، أخذتهم السماء فدخلوا في غار في الجبل، فانهجم الغار على الخمسين الذين أقسموا فماتوا جميعا، وأفلت القرينان واتبعهما حجر فكسر رجل أخي المقتول، فعاش حولا ثم مات. قلت: وقد كان عبد الملك بن مروان أقاد رجلا بالقسامة ثم ندم بعد ما صنع، فأمر بالخمسين الذين أقسموا فمحوا من الديوان وسيرهم إلى الشام.