Umar bin Abdul-Aziz one day brought out his couch for the people, then permitted them to enter. When they came in, he asked, "What do you say concerning Qassama?"They replied, "We say that retaliation through Qassama is valid. The caliphs have carried out retaliation based on it."He said to me, "What do you say, Abu Qilabah?" and he placed me before the people.I said, "Commander of the Believers, you have here the chiefs of the armies and the noblemen of the Arabs. What do you think, if fifty of them testified against a married man in Damascus that he had committed adultery, but had not seen it themselves, would you stone him?"He said, "No."I said, "And what do you think, if fifty of them testified against a man in Homs that he had stolen, without having seen it themselves, would you cut off his hand?"He said, "No."I said, "By Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never executed anyone except in one of three cases. A man who killed someone, so he was killed in retaliation. A man who committed adultery after being married. Or a man who waged war against Allah and His Messenger and apostatized from Islam."The people said, "But did not Anas bin Malik report that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ cut off hands for theft, branded the eyes, and then cast them 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 upon Islam. The climate of the land did not agree with them and their bodies grew sick. They complained of this to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he said, 'Will you not go out with our shepherd among his camels and drink of their milk and urine?' They said, 'Yes.' So they went out and drank of the milk and urine, and they recovered. Then they killed the shepherd of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and drove off the camels. News of this reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he sent men in pursuit of them. They were caught and brought back. He gave the order, so their hands and feet were cut off, their eyes were branded, and they were cast out in the sun until they died."I said, "And what crime is more severe than what these men committed? They apostatized from Islam, killed, and stole."Anbasa bin Saeed said, "By Allah, I have never heard the like of what I have heard today."I said, "Are you rejecting my hadith, Anbasa?"He said, "No, but you have related the hadith as it should be. By Allah, this army will continue to be in good condition as long as this elder lives among them."I said, "There is in this matter a precedent from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. A group of the Ansar came in to see him and were conversing with him. One of them went out ahead of the others and was killed. They went out after him and found their companion writhing in his blood. They returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, 'Messenger of Allah, our companion was conversing with us, then went out ahead of us, and we found him writhing in his blood.' The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went out and asked, 'Whom do you suspect, or whom do you think killed him?' They said, 'We think the Jews killed him.' So he sent for the Jews and summoned them and asked, 'Did you kill this man?' They said, 'No.' He said, 'Will you accept that fifty of the Jews swear that they did not kill him?' They said, 'They would not care to kill us all and then take such an oath.' He said, 'Then will you take the blood-money based on the oaths of fifty of you?' They said, 'We would not swear.' So he paid the blood-money from his own resources."I said, "The tribe of Huzayl had disowned one of their tribesmen during the period before Islam. He came upon a household from Yemen at al-Bathaa, and one of them awoke and struck him with a sword and killed him. Huzayl came and seized the Yemeni and brought him to 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 men of them swore. Then a man of them came from Sham, and they asked him to swear. He ransomed his oath from them with a thousand dirhams, and they put another man in his place. The killer was handed over to the brother of the slain man, and his hand was bound to his hand. They set off, along with the fifty who had sworn, until they reached Nakhla, where rain caught them, so they entered a cave in the mountain. The cave collapsed upon the fifty who had sworn and they all died, but the two bound together escaped. A stone followed them and broke the leg of the slain man's brother. He lived for a year and then died."I said, "Abdul-Malik bin Marwan once carried out retaliation against a man on the basis of Qassama, then he regretted what he had done. He ordered that the names of the fifty who had sworn be struck from the register and exiled them to Sham."
حدثنا قتيبة بن سعيد حدثنا أبو بشر إسماعيل بن إبراهيم الأسدي حدثنا الحجاج بن أبي عثمان حدثني أبو رجاء من آل أبي قلابة حدثني
أن عمر بن عبد العزيز أبرز سريره يوما للناس ثم أذن لهم فدخلوا فقال ما تقولون في القسامة قال نقول القسامة القود بها حق وقد أقادت بها الخلفاء قال لي ما تقول يا أبا قلابة ونصبني 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 أحدا 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 أوليس 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 في 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 وأي شيء أشد مما صنع هؤلاء ارتدوا عن الإسلام وقتلوا وسرقوا فقال عنبسة بن سعيد والله إن سمعت كاليوم قط فقلت أترد علي حديثي 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 في الدم فخرج رسول الله ﷺ فقال بمن تظنون أو من 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 الشأم فسألوه أن يقسم فافتدى يمينه منهم بألف درهم فأدخلوا مكانه رجلا آخر فدفعه إلى أخي 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 الشأم