Hadith 115

(The book) ‘Al Manaqib’ of Ibn Shehr Ashub – Ja’far Bin Rizqullah who said, ‘A Christian man was forwarded to (the caliph) Al-Mutawakkil who had been immoral with a Muslim woman. He intended to establish the legal penalty (of stoning) upon him. He became a Muslim. Yahya Bin Aksam said, ‘The Eman deletes whatever had been before it’, while others said, ‘He should be struck three legal penalties’. Al-Mutawakkil wrote to Ali-asws Bin Muhammad Al-Naqi-asws asking him-asws. When he-asws read the letter, he-asws wrote: ‘He should be struck until he dies’. The jurists denied that. So, he wrote to him-asws asking him-asws about the reason. He-asws said (wrote): ‘In the Name of Allah-azwj the Beneficent, the Merciful! But when they saw Our Punishment, they said, ‘We believe in Allah alone and we deny what we had been associating with Him’ [40: 84] But their Eman wasn’t going to benefit them when they saw Our Punishment. (This is) a Sunnah of Allah which Has been set aside among His servants, and that is where the Kafirs lost out [40: 85]’ – the Chapter. He (the narrator) said, ‘So Al-Mutawakkil ordered, and he was struck until he died’’. [142]