Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 30702 — The one guilty of zina: how many

Sayyiduna Nu'aym (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Sayyiduna Ma'iz bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I have committed adultery, so may you (peace and blessings be upon him) establish upon me the ruling of the Book of Allah. He turned away from him. He said again: I have committed adultery, so may you (peace and blessings be upon him) establish upon me the ruling of the Book of Allah. He (peace and blessings be upon him) again turned away from him, until he had mentioned it four times. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Take him away and stone him. When the pain of the stones became very severe for him, he ran. Just then Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Unays, or Ibn Anas, came out from his wilderness, struck him with the shank of a camel and knocked him down, and the people pelted him with stones until they killed him. Then his fleeing was mentioned before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Why did you not leave him, so that he might repent and Allah would accept his repentance? O Hazzal, or he said: O Hazzan! If you had covered him with your garment, that would have been better for you than what you did.