Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 30683 — The one guilty of zina: how many

Sayyiduna Nu'aym bin Hazzal (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Ma'iz bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) was under the care of my father. He committed adultery with a slave girl of the tribe, so my father said to him: Go to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and tell him (peace and blessings be upon him) what you have done, and he will seek forgiveness for you. By this my father intended that he (peace and blessings be upon him) would make a way out for him. So he came to him (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I have committed adultery; establish the ruling of the Book of Allah on me. He (peace and blessings be upon him) turned away from him. Then he came to him (peace and blessings be upon him) again, until the narrator mentioned four times. Then he came to him (peace and blessings be upon him) the fourth time and said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I have committed adultery; establish the ruling of the Book of Allah on me. At this the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Have you not said this four times? So with whom was it? He said: With such-and-such a woman. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Did you lie with her? He said: Yes. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: Did you have relations with her? He said: Yes. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked again: Did you have intercourse with her? He said: Yes. The narrator said: He (peace and blessings be upon him) gave the order concerning him, so he was stoned: he was taken out to the land of Harrah. When he felt the blows of the stones, he ran out quickly. Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Unays (may Allah be pleased with him) met him, and the companions who were stoning him had been unable to keep up with him. He pulled out the thin part of the shank of his camel, struck him with it and killed him. Then he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and mentioned this to him (peace and blessings be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Why did you not leave him? Perhaps he would have repented, and Allah would have accepted his repentance.