Sahih al-Bukhari 5309

Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.

Yaḥyā narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Ibn Jurayj informed us; he said: Ibn Shihāb informed me about liʿān and its procedure, in a report from Sahl ibn Saʿd, the brother of Banū Sāʿidah: A man from the Anṣār came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, ‘Messenger of Allah, what do you think of a man who finds another man with his wife? Should he kill him, or what should he do?’ Allah revealed concerning his case what is mentioned in the Qur’an about the spouses who invoke curses upon one another. The Prophet said, ‘Allah has decreed concerning you and your wife.’ He said: They performed liʿān in the mosque, and I witnessed it. When they had finished, he said, ‘I would be lying about her, Messenger of Allah, if I kept her.’ He divorced her three times before the Messenger of Allah had ordered him to do so, after they had finished liʿān, and he separated from her in the presence of the Prophet. The Prophet said, ‘That is the separation between every two spouses who perform liʿān.’ Ibn Jurayj said: Ibn Shihāb said: The practice after them was that spouses who perform liʿān are separated. She was pregnant, and her son was attributed to his mother. Then the practice regarding her inheritance was that she inherited from him, and he inherited from her according to what Allah had prescribed for him. Ibn Jurayj said, from Ibn Shihāb, from Sahl ibn Saʿd, in this report: The Prophet said, ‘If she gives birth to a red, short child, like a small lizard, I would consider that she spoke truthfully and he lied about her. If she gives birth to a dark-skinned, wide-eyed child with large buttocks, I would consider that he spoke truthfully and she lied about him.’ She gave birth to a child matching the less favored of those descriptions.