The saying of Allah, exalted be His praise: "And those who accuse chaste women and then do not bring four witnesses, flog them with eighty (80) lashes and never accept their testimony, and it is they who are the defiantly disobedient." [Surah al-Nur: 4] "Except those who repent after that and reform, then indeed Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful." [Surah al-Nur: 5]
Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "An exception that comes in the course of speech applies to both the beginning and the end of the speech, according to the position of all the people of fiqh, unless a hadith distinguishes between them."
Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "And indeed there is a hadith (also) on this."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / Q20545
Sufyan bin Uyaynah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I heard al-Zuhri (may Allah have mercy on him) say: The people of Iraq claim that the testimony of one who has been given a hadd punishment is not permissible. I inform you that Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said to Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him): Repent, and your testimony will be accepted; or: If you repent, your testimony will be accepted.
(b) The huffaz narrate it from Hadrat Sa'id (may Allah have mercy on him) without doubt, and in it is the addition that Hadrat Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) asked the three to repent; two repented and their testimony was accepted, and Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him) refused, so his testimony was rejected.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20545
Sa'id bin al-Musayyib (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said to Sayyiduna Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him): If you repent, your testimony will be accepted; or he said: Repent, and your testimony will be accepted.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20546
Sa'id bin al-Musayyib (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) flogged the three persons, then asked them to repent; two repented, so he accepted their testimony, and Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him) refused, so his testimony too was not accepted.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20547
Sa'id bin Asim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: When someone came to Sayyiduna Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him) to make him a witness, he would say: "Take someone other than me as a witness, for the Muslims have declared me a sinner." This, if authentic, is because he did not repent from it after the accusation but persisted in it; had he repented, the charge of being a sinner would have been removed from him, and Allah knows best.
Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) states that the testimony of the slanderer is accepted after repentance.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20548
Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said concerning this saying of Allah Almighty: "Never accept their testimony, for they are the defiantly disobedient" [Surah al-Nur: 4]; then He said: "Except those who repent" [Surah al-Baqarah: 160]. Whoever repents, his testimony will be accepted; this is in the Qur'an of Allah.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20549
Ibn Abi Najih (may Allah have mercy on him) said: When the slanderer repents, his testimony will be accepted. He said: All of us say this: Ata, Tawus and Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on them).
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20550
Ibn Abi Najih (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates from Ata (may Allah have mercy on him), Tawus (may Allah have mercy on him) and Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him) that they said about the slanderer: If he repents, his testimony will be accepted.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20551
Imam al-Sha'bi (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say about the slanderer: When the flogging is finished and he declares himself a liar and retracts his statement, his testimony will be accepted.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20554
Husayn (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I saw a man who was given the hadd punishment for slander on the basis of suspicion. When the punishment was finished, he repented. He said: "I seek forgiveness from Allah and repent to Him for slandering chaste women." The narrator said: I met Abu al-Zinad (may Allah have mercy on him) and told him about this, and he said: "With us, when he retracts his statement and repents, his testimony will be accepted."
(b) The Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Abdullah bin Utbah (may Allah have mercy on him) has a saying concerning the testimony of the slanderer.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20555
It reached Malik that Sa'id bin al-Musayyib and Sulayman bin Yasar (may Allah have mercy on them) were asked about a man who had been given the hadd punishment: is his testimony permissible? They said: Yes, if his repentance becomes evident. And Ibn Shihab was asked about a man who has been given the hadd punishment by flogging: is his testimony permissible? He said: Yes, if his repentance becomes evident.
Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said: This is the position with us: "Except those who repent after that and reform, then Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful" [Surah Al Imran: 89]. If the one who has been given the hadd punishment repents, his testimony is acceptable.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20556
Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri narrates from Hadrat Urwah bin al-Zubayr, Sa'id bin al-Musayyib, Alqamah bin Waqqas al-Laythi, Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utbah, and Hadrat Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that when the slanderers said what they said, Allah declared her innocent. He mentioned the long hadith; she said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered an address, then said: "O Aishah! Such news has reached me about you; if you are innocent, Allah will declare your innocence, and if a sin has been committed by you, then seek forgiveness from Allah and repent, for when a servant commits a sin and then repents, Allah accepts his repentance."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20557
Abdullah bin Ma'qil said that his father asked Sayyiduna Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): Did you hear the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'An-nadamu tawbah' (Remorse is repentance)? He said: "Yes!"
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20558
Abdullah bin Ma'qil (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I was with my father (Ma'qil, may Allah be pleased with him) beside Sayyiduna Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), and he said to Sayyiduna Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): Did you hear it from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? He said: Yes, I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Remorse is repentance."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20559
Ziyad bin Abi Maryam (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: "Remorse is repentance, and the one who repents is like one who has no sin."
Abd al-Razzaq narrated it thus from Ma'mar, munqati' (with a broken chain) and mawquf (as the Companion's own words), with its addition.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20560
Abu Ubaydah narrates from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The one who repents from sin is like one who has not sinned at all."
So he said, and it is an error (wahm); the hadith is (narrated) from Abd al-Karim, from Ziyad bin Abi Maryam, from Abdullah bin Ma'qil, from Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), as has preceded; and Allah knows best. It has also been narrated with this wording through weak chains.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20561
Muhammad bin Ziyad al-Alhani (may Allah have mercy on him) says: I heard Abu Utbah al-Khawlani (may Allah be pleased with him) say: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "The one who repents from sin is just like one who has not sinned at all."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20562
Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) says that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The one who repents from sin is just like one who has never sinned at all."
This chain has weakness in it. It has also been narrated through another weak chain from Abu Sa'dah al-Ansari from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20563
Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) says that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Every word that the son of Adam speaks is written down. When he commits a wrong and loves to repent to Allah, he comes to an elevated place, spreads out his hands to Allah in supplication, and then says: 'I repent; I will never commit this sin again.' He is forgiven, as long as he does not do it again."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20564
Sayyiduna Nu'man bin Bashir narrates from Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with them both) concerning the saying of Allah Almighty: "O you who believe, turn to Allah in sincere repentance" [Surah al-Tahrim: 8], that he said: It is that the servant, after committing a sin, does not commit that sin again.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20565
Abu al-Ahwas narrates from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that, concerning this saying of Allah Almighty: "O you who believe, turn to Allah in sincere repentance" [Surah al-Tahrim: 8], he said: After repenting from a sin, he does not return to it again.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20566
Awf bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I know the repentance for every sin. They said: O Abu Abd al-Rahman, what is its repentance? He said: That after abandoning it, he does not do it again.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20567