977 – Abu Hurayrah  reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The child is attributed to the marital bed, while the fornicator receives only the stone.” Agreed upon, related by him (1), by ʿĀʾishah in another account (2), by Ibn Masʿūd in a report recorded by al-Nasāʾī (3), and by ʿUthmān in a report recorded by Abū Dāwūd (4).

Hadith grading:
The narration of Ibn Masʿūd found in al-Nasāʾī has a sound chain: it comes through Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, who said, “Jarīr narrated to us from Mughīrah, from Abū Wāʾil, from Ibn Masʿūd, from the Prophet ﷺ …” All the transmitters in the chain are reliable.
As for the narration of ʿUthmān in Abū Dāwūd, its transmitters are likewise trustworthy, and al-Suyūṭī counted this ḥadīth among the mutawātir (mass-transmitted) reports.

Lexical notes:
• al-firāsh: linguistically, a spread laid upon the ground; hence a wife is called a man’s “bed.” The meaning here is that the child belongs to the owner of the bed—that is, to his wife or female slave.
• al-ʿāhir: from ʿahara, meaning to approach a woman in fornication. A man who does so is an ʿāhir (pl. ʿuhhār); a woman is ʿāhirah (pl. ʿawāhir, ʿāhirāt). Thus, al-ʿāhir is the fornicator, the one who commits zinā.
• al-ḥajar: with an open ḥāʾ, is a piece of stone or solid rock, i.e.,