They mentioned this while Umar ibn al-Khattab was among us. He said, “I will settle this matter for you.” We said, “How?” He said, “I will go to the Prophet and mention such-and-such to him, and when he mentions stoning, I will say, ‘O Messenger of Allah, have the verse of stoning written down for me.’” He said: So I went to him and mentioned it to him. He mentioned the verse of stoning, so I said, “O Messenger of Allah, have the verse of stoning written down for me.” He said, “I am unable to do that.”
I say: Its narrators are reliable, apart from Muhammad’s shaykh, who is unnamed. Al-Bayhaqi indicated that it is authentic when he said immediately afterward: “This report and the one preceding it demonstrate that the ruling of the verse of stoning remains established, while its recitation has been abrogated. I know of no disagreement concerning this.” Al-Suyuti also cited it in al-Durr al-Manthur through al-Nasa’i and Abu Ya‘la, in a somewhat abridged form, with the wording: “I am unable to do so now.”
- As for the hadith of Ubayy, ‘Asim ibn Bahdalah narrates it from Zir, who said: Ubayy ibn Ka‘b said to me, “How many verses do you recite Surat al-Ahzab as containing, or how many do you count it to contain?” I said, “Seventy-three verses.” He said, “Only that? I saw it when it was equal to Surat al-Baqarah, and we used to recite in it: ‘The elderly man and the elderly woman ...’” He added: “as a deterrent punishment from Allah; and Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.”
It was recorded by al-Nasa’i (7141), Ibn Hibban (6/301/4411 and 4412), al-Hakim (2/415 and 4/359), al-Bayhaqi as well, and ‘Abd al-Razzaq in al-Musannaf (3/