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Hadith 24779
The people passed by the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) with a jew whose face blackened with charcoal and he was being taken around. He adjured them by Allah and asked: What is the prescribed punishment for a fornicator in your Divine book? He (the narrator) said: They referred him to a man of them. The Prophet (ﷺ) adjured him and asked: What is the punishment for a fornication in your Divine Book? He replied: Stoning. But fornication spread among our people of rank, so we disliked that a person of rank should be left alone and the punishment be inflicted on one who is lower in rank than him. So we suspended it for us. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then commanded regarding him and he was stoned to death. He then said: O Allah! I am the first to give life to a command of Thy Book which they had killed.
Sunan Abi Dawud Book 40, Hadith 97
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some jews came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and mentioned to him that a man and a women of their number had committed fornication. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) asked them: What do you find in the Torah about stoning? They replied: We disgrace them and they should be flogged. ‘Abd Allah b. Salam said: You lie; it contains (instruction for) stoning. So they brought the Torah and spread it out, and one of them put his hand over the verse of stoning and read what preceded it and what followed it. ‘Abd Allah b. Salam said to him: Lift your hand. When he did so, the verse of stoning was seen to be in it. They then said: He has spoken the truth, Muhammad, the verse of stoning is in it. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then gave command regarding them, and they were stoned to death. ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Umar said: I saw the man leaning on the woman protecting her from the stones. Sunan Abi Dawud Book 40, Hadith 96
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The people passed by the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) with a Jew who was blackened with charcoal and who was being flogged.
He called them and said: Is this the prescribed punishment for a fornicator?
They said: Yes. He then called on a learned man among them and asked him: I adjure you by Allah Who revealed the Torah to Moses, do you find this prescribed punishment for a fornicator in your divine Book?
He said: By Allah, no. If you had not adjured me about this, I should not have informed you. We find stoning to be prescribed punishment for a fornicator in our Divine Book. But it (fornication) became frequent in our people of rank; so when we seized a person of rank, we left him alone, and when we seized a weak person, we inflicted the prescribed punishment on him. So we said: Come, let us agree on something which may be enforced equally on people of higher and lower rank. So we agreed to blacken the face of a criminal with charcoal, and flog him, and we abandoned stoning.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then said: O Allah, I am the first to give life to Thy command which they have killed. So he commanded regarding him (the Jew) and he was stoned to death.
Allah Most High then sent down: "O Apostle, let not those who race one another into unbelief, make thee grieve..." up to "They say: If you are given this, take it, but if not, beware!...." up to "And if any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) unbelievers," about Jews, up to "And if any do fail to judge by (the right of) what Allah hath revealed, they are no better than) wrong-doers" about Jews: and revealed the verses up to "And if any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) those who rebel." About this he said: This whole verse was revealed about the infidels. Sunan Abi Dawud Book 40, Hadith 98