بَابُ مَا لَا يُدْعَى عَلَى الْمَحْدُوْدِWhat Should Not Be Invoked Against the Punished

Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that a man named Abdullah, nicknamed Donkey, used to make the Prophet (ﷺ) laugh. The Prophet (ﷺ) had lashed him for drinking. One day, he was brought, and the Prophet ordered his lashing. A man from the people said: O Allah, curse him, how often he is brought! The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Do not curse him, for by Allah, I know he loves Allah and His Messenger. [Narrated by al-Bukhari.]

In another narration by him: When he left, some people said: May Allah disgrace you. He said: Do not say this, do not aid the devil against him.

Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Al-Aslami came to the Prophet of Allah (ﷺ) and testified against himself four times that he had committed unlawful intercourse with a woman, each time the Prophet turned away from him. On the fifth time, he turned to him and said: Did you have intercourse with her? He said: Yes. He said: Until that part of you was concealed in that part of her? He said: Yes. He said: Like the stick is concealed in the kohl container or the rope in the well? He said: Yes. He said: Do you know what adultery is? He said: Yes, I did with her unlawfully what a man does with his wife lawfully. He said: What do you want with this statement? He said: I want you to purify me. So he ordered him to be stoned. The Prophet of Allah (ﷺ) heard two of his companions, one saying to the other: Look at this one whom Allah concealed, but his soul did not leave him until he was stoned like a dog. He remained silent about them, then traveled for a while until he passed by the carcass of a donkey with its leg raised. He said: Where are so-and-so and so-and-so? They said: We are here, O Messenger of Allah. He said: Get down and eat from this donkey’s carcass. They said: O Prophet of Allah, who would eat this? He said: What you took from your brother’s honor just now is worse than eating it. By the One in Whose hand is my soul, he is now plunging in the rivers of Paradise. [Narrated by Abu Dawud.]

Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: I do not know whether the prescribed punishments are expiations for their people or not. [Narrated by al-Bayhaqi in his Sunan. Abd al-Razzaq, al-Hakim in his Mustadrak, and al-Bazzar in his Musnad narrated the same. Al-Hakim said: It is authentic on the condition of the two Shaykhs, and the chain is strong by the acknowledgment of the Hafiz. Abu Hurayra is later than Ubada, so the consideration is for him.]

Al-Tahawi narrated from Abu Hurayra, who said: A thief was brought to the Prophet (ﷺ), and they said: O Messenger of Allah, this one stole. He said: I do not think he stole. The thief said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He said: Take him, cut him, then cauterize him, and bring him back to me. He said: He was taken, cut, cauterized, and brought back. He said: Repent to Allah, the Mighty and Exalted. He said: I have repented to Allah. He said: Allah has accepted your repentance.

In a narration by Abu Dawud, al-Nasa’i, Ibn Majah, and al-Darimi: He was ordered to be cut, and he was brought back. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to him: Seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him. He said: I seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: O Allah, accept his repentance, three times. This indicates that the prescribed punishment is not an expiation for sins, and the expiation is repentance.

As for what al-Bukhari and others narrated authentically: If one commits any of these sins and is punished for it in this world, it is an expiation for him. If one commits any of them and Allah conceals it, it is up to Allah; if He wills, He forgives him, and if He wills, He punishes him. This must be understood as applying when he repents during the punishment, as this is apparent, because it is apparent that his beating or stoning is accompanied by his repentance due to experiencing the cause of his action, so it is qualified by this to reconcile the evidence. Qualifying the speculative with the definitive opposing it is necessary, unlike the reverse. [As in Fath al-Qadir.] Al-Zayla’i argued that it is not a purifier from sin because it is enforced on the disbeliever, and there is no purifier for him by consensus. Our clearest evidence is in al-Nahr. [Taken from al-Bahr al-Ra’iq, Foundation of Care, Refutation of the Perplexed, and al-Arf al-Shadhi.]