JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

JAIS
Pavel Pavlovitch
That is to say, the chronological sequence Qurʾān 4:15 – the ʿUbāda
tradition implied the question of whether the sunna may abrogate the
Qurʾān. A positive answer would allow for accepting ʿUbāda as capable of
modifying the Quranic ordinance in a way tantamount to abrogation; a
negative answer would mean that the origins of the stoning penalty had to
be found in scripture. There was a middle way, however. This is evident
from a large group of traditions that describe the dual-penalty maxim as a
divinely inspired prophetic utterance.
Diagram 5 (p. 192) shows an extensive isnād and matn bundle, which
converges—albeit not exclusively—in Saʿīd b. Abī ʿArūba (d. 156–
59/772–76). Below the tier of Ibn Abī ʿArūba, the isnād includes Qatāda b.
191
Diʿāma, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Ḥiṭṭān b. ʿAbd Allāh and ʿUbāda b. al-Ṣamit.
Upon comparison, this part of the isnād turns out to be exactly the same as
the
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corresponding part of the isnād that Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān used to
support his variant of the non-revelation tradition. This analogy will be
important for the analysis of the revelation cluster. For more clarity, I
divide this chapter into three parts corresponding to each potential CL.
The Ibn Abī ʿArūba cluster
A brief look at the isnād structure (Diagram 5, p. 192) suffices to show that
single lines of transmission predominate in the Saʿīd b. Abī ʿArūba cluster.
Upon closer inspection, however, three key figures may be singled out.
One of them is the Baṣran traditionist Yazīd b. Zurayʿ (101–Shawwāl 182
or 183/719–20 – November 798 or 799), a relatively early key figure
immediately above the tier of Ibn Abī ʿArūba. Ibn Zurayʿ’s tradition is
cited by al-Nasāʾī and al-Ṭabarī. Al-Nasāʾī’s variant runs as follows:
(1a) Kāna rasūl u l-lāh i , ṣalʿam, idhā nazala/nuzzila ʿalay-hi kuriba lidhālika
wa-tarabbada la-hu wajh u -hu (1b) fa-nazala/nuzzila ʿalay-hi dhat a
yawm in fa-laqiya dhālika fa-lammā surriya ʿan-hu qāla: (2) “Khudhū ʿannī!
(3) Qad jaʿala l-lāh u la-hunna sabīl an . (4a) Al-bikr u bi-l-bikr i jald u miʾat in
wa-nafy u sana (4b) wa-l-thayyib u bi-l-thayyib i jald u miʾat in wa-l-rajm.”
(1a) When [a revelation] descended upon the Messenger of Allāh, may Allāh
bless him and grant him peace, he would be overwhelmed by grief and his
face would grow pallid (1b) One day [a revelation] descended upon him,
whereupon he experienced this [kind of symptoms]. When he [the
Messenger of Allāh] regained his composure, he said: (2) “Take it from me!
(3) Allāh has appointed a way for them. (4a) A virgin with a virgin [punish
them with] one hundred strokes and a year’s banishment (4b) A non-virgin
with a non-virgin [punish them with] one hundred strokes and stoning”. 111
111 Al-Nasāʾī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā, 6:405, no. 7105.