Yahya related to me from Malik from Rabia ibn Abi Abd ar-Rahman that az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam came across a man who had taken hold of a thief and was intending to take him to the Sultan. Az-Zubayr ibn al- Awwam interceded for him to let him go. He said, "No. Not until I take him to the Sultan." Az-Zubayr said, "When you reach the Sultan with him, Allah curses the one who intercedes and the one who accepts the intercession."
Muwatta Malik Book 41, Hadith 31
← Previous Hadith Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from Safwan ibn Abdullah ibn Safwan that it was said to Safwan ibn Umayya, "Whoever does not do hijra is ruined." So Safwan ibn Umayya went to Madina and slept in the mosque with his cloak as a pillow. A thief came and took his cloak and Safwan grabbed hold of the thief and brought him to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to him, "Did you steal this cloak?" He said, "Yes." So the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered that his hand be cut off. Safwan said to him, "I did not intend this. It is his as sadaqa." The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Why didn't you do it before bringing him to me?"

Muwatta Malik Book 41, Hadith 30 Next Hadith → Yahya related to me from Malik from Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Qasim from his father that a man from Yemen who had his hand and foot cut off came and went before Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and complained to him that the governor of the Yemen had wronged him, and the man used to pray part of the night. Abu Bakr said, "By your father, your night is not the night of a thief." Then they missed a necklace of Asma bint Umays, the wife of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. The man came to go around with them looking for it. He said, "O Allah! You are responsible for the one who invaded the people of this good house by night!" They found the jewelry with a goldsmith. He claimed that the maimed man had brought it to him. The maimed man confessed or it was testified against him. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq ordered that his left hand be cut off. Abu Bakr said, "By Allah! His dua against himself is more serious, as far as I am concerned, than his theft."

Yahya said that Malik said, "What is done among us about the person who steals several times and is then called to reckoning, is that only his hand is cut off for all he stole when the hadd has not been applied againsthim. If the hadd has been applied against him before that, and he steals what obliges cutting off, then the next limb is cut off."

Muwatta Malik Book 41, Hadith 32