Some men from among the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ of the Ansar informed me that one of them fell ill until he became severely emaciated, his skin clinging to his bones. A young slave girl belonging to one of them came in to visit him, and he was aroused by her and had relations with her.When some men from his people came in to visit him, he told them what had happened and said, "Seek a ruling for me from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for I have had relations with a slave girl who came in to me."They mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, "Messenger of Allah, we have never seen anyone in such a state of suffering as he is in. If we were to carry him to you, his bones would fall apart. He is nothing but skin on bone."So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered them to take a cluster of one hundred date palm twigs and strike him with it a single blow.
أخبرني بعض أصحاب رسول الله ﷺ من الأنصار أنه اشتكى رجل منهم حتى أضني فعاد جلده على عظم. فدخلت جارية لبعضهم، فهش إليها، فوقع عليها. فلما دخل عليه رجال من قومه يعودونه أخبرهم بذلك. وقال: استفتوا لي رسول الله ﷺ، فإني قد وقعت على جارية دخلت علي. فذكروا ذلك لرسول الله ﷺ فقالوا: يا رسول الله ما رأينا بأحد من الناس من الضر مثل الذي هو به، لو حملنا إليك لتفسخت عظامه ما هو إلا جلد على عظم. فأمرهم رسول الله ﷺ بمائة شمراخ، فيضربونه ضربة واحدة.
This was narrated by Abu Dawud (4472) and Ibn Jarud (817), both through two routes from Yunus, from Ibn Shihab, "Abu Umama bin Sahl bin Hunayf informed me," and he related the same. Its chain of transmission is sahih.This hadith has other routes as well, including what was narrated by Ahmad (21935) and Ibn Majah (2574), both through the route of Muhammad bin Ishaq, from Yaqub bin Abdullah bin Ashaj, from Abu Umama bin Sahl, from Saeed bin Saad bin Ubada, who said, "There was among our households a weak, crippled man. The people of the household noticed nothing until he was found upon one of the household's slave women, committing an indecent act with her, and he was a Muslim." Saad brought his case up to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he said, and he related the rest similarly. This chain of transmission is not problematic, except that Muhammad bin Ishaq is a mudallis and he narrated it using "an" (without stating direct hearing).Another route was narrated by Shafii, and through his route by Bayhaqi (8/230), from Sufyan, from Yahya bin Saeed and Abu Zinad, both from Abu Umama bin Sahl bin Hunayf, that a man was among the female servants of Saad and got a woman pregnant, and he related the rest similarly.Bayhaqi said, "This is what is preserved from Sufyan as a mursal narration. It has also been narrated from him as connected, mentioning Abu Saeed. It has also been said, from Abu Zinad, from Abu Umama, from his father. And it has also been said, from Abu Umama, from Saeed bin Saad bin Ubada." End of quote.I say, the connected narration of Sufyan was narrated by Daraqutni (3/100) through the route of Amr bin Awn, who said, "Sufyan narrated to us, from Abu Zinad and Yahya bin Saeed, from Abu Umama bin Sahl, from Abu Saeed," and he related it.The conclusion regarding this is that Abu Umama narrated this hadith as mursal, and this is what Daraqutni preferred in his Ilal (12/276–278), just as he also narrated it as connected from a group of companions. All of these are sahih and preserved, as Ibn Hajar said in Talkhis (4/59) after listing its routes.As for his statement "adna," it means that illness afflicted him, that is, severe sickness and poor condition to the point that his body wasted away. The practice according to some scholars is based on this. They said that if a sick person, whose illness is not expected to be removed, becomes liable for the hadd punishment of zina, and he is unmarried, he is struck with a bundle of palm branches numbering a hundred sprigs in a single blow, such that all the sprigs touch him, and thereby the hadd punishment is dropped from him. This is the view held by Shafii and Ahmad.As for the sick person whose recovery is expected, there is no disagreement among the scholars about delaying the hadd punishment until he recovers, based on the hadith of Ali as mentioned previously.Some held the view that he should not be struck with the palm branches, and this is the view of Malik and the people of legal reasoning.