Sunan Ibn Majah
Sunan Ibn Majah 3534
حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو بَكْرِ بْنُ أَبِي شَيْبَةَ، حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدَةُ بْنُ سُلَيْمَانَ، عَنْ هِشَامِ بْنِ عُرْوَةَ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، عَنْ عَائِشَةَ، قَالَتْ أَمَرَ النَّبِيُّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ بِقَتْلِ ذِي الطُّفْيَتَيْنِ فَإِنَّهُ يَلْتَمِسُ الْبَصَرَ وَيُصِيبُ الْحَبَلَ . يَعْنِي حَيَّةً خَبِيثَةً .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us: ʿAbdah ibn Sulaymān narrated to us, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: The Prophet ordered that the two-striped snake be killed, for it takes away eyesight and causes miscarriage. That is, it is a harmful snake.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The text calls it ذُو الطُّفْيَتَيْنِ (‘the one with two stripes/markings’) and glosses it as a harmful snake; it does not identify a zoological species. The phrase وَيُصِيبُ الْحَبَلَ is rendered as causing miscarriage, following the source English witness’s reading of harm to pregnancy.
قَالَتْ أَمَرَ النَّبِيُّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ بِقَتْلِ ذِي الطُّفْيَتَيْنِ فَإِنَّهُ يَلْتَمِسُ الْبَصَرَ وَيُصِيبُ الْحَبَلَ .
ذُو الطُّفْيَتَيْنِ names a snake by two markings, while يَلْتَمِسُ الْبَصَرَ وَيُصِيبُ الْحَبَلَ is traditionally rendered as taking away sight and causing miscarriage; exact zoological and physiological referents are not specified.
Should the name be rendered descriptively as ‘two-striped snake,’ and does يُصِيبُ الْحَبَلَ specifically indicate miscarriage?