Bayhaqi 15351 — Section: Questioning the man accused with the woman

Bukayr bin Ma'ruf narrates from Muqatil bin Hayyan (may Allah have mercy on him), concerning the saying of Allah: "And those who accuse chaste women and then do not bring four witnesses, flog them with eighty lashes" [Surah al-Nur: 4], that Asim bin Adi (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up and related the story of a man who saw another man upon his wife's belly committing adultery with her, and the verses of li'an were revealed. His cousin Hilal bin Umayyah (may Allah be pleased with him) accused his wife with his own cousin Sharik bin Sahma', saying that she was pregnant by him. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) summoned the alleged lover (khalil), the woman and the husband, and they all gathered before him. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to her husband Hilal bin Umayyah (may Allah be pleased with him): "Woe to you! What are you saying about your uncle's daughter, your uncle's son and your friend, accusing them falsely?" The husband said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! I swear, I saw him upon her belly; she is pregnant by him, and I have not gone near her for four months. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked the wife: "What is your husband saying?" She said: I swear by Allah, he is a liar, and he has not seen anything of the sort that would raise suspicion; and she spoke at length in denial. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the alleged lover: "What do you say about your cousin?" He said: I swear by Allah, he did not see what he is saying; he is a liar. He too spoke at length in denial. The narrator says: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the husband and wife: "Stand up and swear." They stood by the pulpit after the Asr prayer, and her husband Hilal bin Umayyah (may Allah be pleased with him) swore, saying: I bear witness that I am truthful. He set out his li'an and the manner of her li'an, and in the husband's li'an he mentioned: She is pregnant by someone other than me, and I am truthful. Then he did not mention Sharik being made to swear; he only mentioned the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "When she gives birth, bring the child to me." She gave birth to a black child with curly hair, as though he were from Abyssinia. When he looked at him, he saw his resemblance to Sharik, who was the son of an Abyssinian woman. He said: "Had the li'an not already taken place, I would have dealt with this woman," meaning stoning her.
As for the statement of Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked Sharik and he denied it, but he did not make him swear: it is possible that he took this from the people of tafsir, for he had heard it, and I have not found it in the connected (mawsul) narrations. And what Imam al-Shafi'i said in the book Ahkam al-Qur'an, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not summon the man with whom the woman was accused, he said only about the story of Uwaymir al-Ajlani; and in the narrations we have, the man with whom the woman was accused is not named in the story of al-Ajlani, except that the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) saying in that story too, "If she gives birth to a child of such-and-such description," indicates that he accused her with a specific man, and it is not reported in it that he summoned him. Imam al-Shafi'i said in al-Imla': I think the man, al-Ajlani, accused his wife with his cousin, and his cousin was Sharik bin al-Sahma'. Then he continued until he said: Al-Ajlani performed li'an, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not apply the hadd to Sharik on account of his li'an. But what is in the hadiths we have narrated is that the one who accused his wife with Sharik bin Sahma' was Hilal bin Umayyah al-Waqifi of Banu Waqif, and I know of no one who named, in the story of Uwaymir al-Ajlani, his accusing his wife with Sharik bin Sahma', except by way of Muhammad bin Umar al-Waqidi, with a chain of his that we mentioned earlier; it is also in the narration of Abu al-Zinad from al-Qasim from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), as has passed. In the well-known narrations he is named only in the story of Hilal bin Umayyah. It may be that the two stories are one: in the connected narrations of al-Ajlani's story it is mentioned that he had Asim bin Adi ask about this, then the verse was revealed, and Uwaymir al-Ajlani came, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) carried out li'an between him and his wife and said: "If she gives birth to such-and-such"; and in the story of Hilal bin Umayyah too it is mentioned that the verse was revealed about him and that he carried out li'an between him and his wife and said: "If she gives birth to such-and-such"; and Muqatil bin Hayyan mentioned Asim bin Adi's question in the story of Hilal. So either it is one story and the narrators differed over the name of the accuser: Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), in one of the two narrations, and Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) name him Hilal bin Umayyah; Sahl bin Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) names him Uwaymir al-Ajlani; Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), in the narration of Ibn Abi al-Zinad from al-Qasim bin Muhammad, says: He carried out li'an between al-Ajlani and his wife; Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) says: He separated the two of Banu al-Ajlan; and Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) says: a man of the Ansar. In that case his statement in al-Imla' rests on part of the reported difference over the man's name. Or they are two stories: when Asim asked about this, he asked for Uwaymir al-Ajlani; then Hilal bin Umayyah was also afflicted with it, and the verse was revealed; so when each of them came, he carried out li'an between him and his wife, and the revelation of the verse was attributed to each of them. On this view, what occurs in al-Imla' must be a scribe's error, or following what was narrated in the hadith of Abu al-Zinad and the hadith of al-Waqidi. And Allah knows best.