you then turned to the gravest of the prescribed punishments and said, “It should be carried out even when doubts exist.”
He asked, “And what is that?”
I replied, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘A Muslim is not put to death in retaliation for a disbeliever (1).’
Yet you say: he is to be put to death on his account—that is, for a dhimmī.”
He responded, “I call you to witness, this very moment, that I have retracted from that view.”
I said, “That is how the true scholar is—he halts where the text halts.”
Ibn Saʿd (2) said: “Zufar died in the year 158 AH, and he held no significant rank in hadith.”
I say: The leading authority of the discipline (3) has nevertheless ruled that he is trustworthy and reliable.
7 – Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ, Abū Muḥammad al-Asadī * (D, T, Q)
The Imām, the ḥāfiẓ, the prolific transmitter, Abū Muḥammad al-Asadī, the Kufan, who was cross-eyed—one of the great reservoirs of knowledge, though he suffered weakness in the area of memorisation.
He was born around the year 90 AH.
(1) Reported by Ahmad, Musnad, 1/79; al-Bukhari, Sahih, 12/217 (Book of Blood-Money, chapters “The ‘aqila” and “A Muslim is not killed for a disbeliever”); al-Darimi, Sunan, 2/190; al-Tirmidhi, Sunan, no. 1413 (Book of Blood-Money); and al-Nasai, Sunan, 8/23 (Book of Qasama), all through the chain of al-Shaʿbi from Abu Juhaifa, who said: “I asked ʿAli, may Allah be pleased with him, ‘Do you possess anything that is not in the Quran—or, in another wording, that other people do not have?’ He replied, ‘By Him who splits the grain and creates life, we have nothing except what is in the Quran—apart from an understanding a man may be granted of his Scripture and what is written on the parchment.’ I asked, ‘And what is on the parchment?’ He said, ‘The rulings on blood-money (al-ʿaql), the liberation of captives, and that a Muslim is not to be executed in retribution for a disbeliever.’”
(2) 6/387–388.
(3) That is the imam Yahya ibn Maʿin.
(*) Khalifa, Tabaqat, p. 169; Khalifa, Tarikh, p. 439; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-Kabir, 7/156; al-Tarikh al-Saghir, 2/170–172; Ibn Hibban, Kitab al-Majruhin wa-l-Duʿafaʾ, 2/216–219; Ibn ʿAdi, al-Kamil, 2/270; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, no. 1135; al-Dhahabi, al-Kashif, 2/404; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, 1/253; al-Dhahabi, Mizan al-Iʿtidal, 3/393–396; Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Duʿafaʾ wa-l-Matruqin, p. 89; al-Dhahabi, Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, 3/162/2; al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 1/226; al-Dhahabi, al-Mughni, 2/526–527; Ibn Hajar, Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal, p. 317; al-Bukhari, al-Duʿafaʾ al-Saghir, p. 95; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharāt al-Dhahab, p. 266; al-Suyuti, Tabaqat al-Huffaz, p. 96; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 8/391–395.