“For the previously married person with the previously married person: one hundred lashes, then stoning with stones; and for the virgin with the virgin: one hundred lashes, then exile for one year.”

1809 — “The comfort of my eyes has been placed in prayer.”

Al-ʿUqaylī narrated it in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (465): “Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Balkhī narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān narrated to us: Haql ibn Ziyād narrated to us, from al-Awzāʿī, from Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Anas ibn Mālik, attributing it to the Prophet.” He said: “Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān al-Ḥarbī, in his report from Haql, is not corroborated in his narration from al-Awzāʿī.”

I say: This Yaḥyā is trustworthy, as will be mentioned below, and so is his shaykh Haql. Nor is a trustworthy narrator harmed by the fact that no one corroborates him in his narration. This hadith was also recorded by al-Khaṭīb in the biographical notice of this Yaḥyā (12/371 and 14/190), through two other chains from him. He then said: “Haql ibn Ziyād alone narrated this hadith in this connected form, from al-Awzāʿī. I have not seen it except through Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān, from Haql. Al-Walīd ibn Muslim contradicted him, narrating it from al-Awzāʿī, from Isḥāq, from the Prophet as a mursal report, without mentioning Anas.” He then cited his chain to al-Walīd accordingly.

I say: This discrepancy carries no weight for two reasons:

First, Haql ibn Ziyād added the connected chain, and the addition of a trustworthy narrator is accepted.

Second, he is more reliable than al-Walīd in reporting from al-Awzāʿī. The statements of the hadith critics are unanimous that he was the most reliable of al-Awzāʿī’s narrators. Thus, where the two differ, his narration is more preponderant than that of al-Walīd ibn Muslim. Reflect on this.

In sum, I consider this hadith authentic through this chain of transmission, for all its other narrators are known and trustworthy. As for this Yaḥyā, al-Khaṭīb related that Ibn Maʿīn deemed him trustworthy, while Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad Jazrah said: “Truthful, and one of the devout worshippers.” Abū Zurʿah and Ibn Ḥibbān likewise declared him trustworthy, as stated in al-Mīzān and al-Lisān.