A man from the tribe of Aslam called Maez bin Malik came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, "I have committed an immoral act, so carry out the prescribed punishment on me."The Prophet ﷺ turned him away several times. Then he asked his people about him, and they said, "We know nothing wrong about him, except that he has committed something he believes nothing can free him from except having the prescribed punishment carried out on him."So Maez returned to the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ordered us to stone him. We took him to Baqi al-Gharqad. We did not tie him up nor dig a pit for him. We threw bones, clods of dirt, and pieces of pottery at him. He ran off, and we ran after him until he reached the open ground of the Harrah, where he turned to face us. We then pelted him with the large stones of the Harrah until he died.Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood to address the people that evening and said, "Whenever we set out on a military expedition in the path of Allah, one of our men stays behind with our families, bleating like a male goat. I swear that any man brought to me who has done such a thing, I will surely make an example of him."He neither asked forgiveness for Maez nor cursed him.
أن رجلا من أسلم يقال له: ماعز بن مالك، أتى رسول الله ﷺ فقال: إني أصبت فاحشة فأقمه علي، فرده النبي ﷺ مرارا. قال: ثم سأل قومه؟ فقالوا: ما نعلم به بأسا إلا أنه أصاب شيئا، يرى أنه لا يخرجه منه إلا أن يقام فيه الحد. قال: فرجع إلى النبي ﷺ فأمرنا أن نرجمه. قال: فانطلقنا به إلى بقيع الغرقد. قال: فما أوثقناه ولا حفرنا له. قال: فرميناه بالعظم والمدر والخزف. قال: فاشتد واشتددنا خلفه، حتى أتى عرض الحرة فانتصب لنا، فرميناه بجلاميد الحرة (يعني الحجارة) قال: ثم قام رسول الله ﷺ الخطيبا من العشي فقال: أو كلما انطلقنا غزاة في سبيل الله، تخلف رجل في عيالنا، له نبيب كنبيب التيس، علي أن لا أوتى برجل فعل ذلك إلا نكلت به قال: فما استغفر له ولا سبه.
Narrated by Muslim in the Book of Punishments (20:1694), from Muhammad bin Muthanna, who said, I was told by Abdul-Ala, who said, we were told by Dawud, from Abu Nadra, from Abu Saeed, and he related it.In a narration of Abu Dawud (4432), from Abu Nadra, as a mursal report, they went to curse him, but he forbade them. He said, they went to seek forgiveness for him, but he forbade them and said, "He is a man who committed a sin, Allah will hold him accountable."The legal ruling of this chapter, the preceding hadith of Burayda bin Husayb indicates the permissibility of digging a pit for the man or woman being stoned. This is the heading Bayhaqi gave it in Sunan al-Kubra (8/55–56), where he said, "This establishes the digging of a pit for both the man and the woman."Shawkani favored this view in Nayl Awtar (4/560) and responded to the hadith of Abu Saeed Khudri, in his statement, "We did not bind him, nor did we dig a pit for him," by saying, "The two narrations have been reconciled by saying that the negation refers to a pit from which he could not leap out, while the affirmation refers to the opposite, or that they did not dig a pit for him at first, but when he fled and they caught up with him, they dug a pit for him and stood him in it until they finished with him, or that they dug a pit for him at first, but when he felt the touch of the stones he came out of the pit and they pursued him."He said, "And assuming it is not possible to reconcile the two, then the narration affirming it must be given precedence over the one denying it."He said, "Abu Hanifa and Shafii held the view that a pit is not dug for the man."He said, "And the well-known position of the imams, meaning Malik, Shafii, and Ahmad, is that no pit is dug at all."