Sunan Ibn Majah
Sunan Ibn Majah 3535
حَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ بْنُ عَمْرِو بْنِ السَّرْحِ، حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ وَهْبٍ، أَخْبَرَنِي يُونُسُ، عَنِ ابْنِ شِهَابٍ، عَنْ سَالِمٍ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ قَالَ " اقْتُلُوا الْحَيَّاتِ وَاقْتُلُوا ذَا الطُّفْيَتَيْنِ وَالأَبْتَرَ فَإِنَّهُمَا يَلْتَمِسَانِ الْبَصَرَ وَيُسْقِطَانِ الْحَبَلَ " .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Aḥmad ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Sarḥ narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb narrated to us: Yūnus informed me, from Ibn Shihāb, from Sālim, from his father, that the Messenger of Allah said: ‘Kill snakes, and kill the two-striped snake and the short-tailed one, for these two take away eyesight and cause miscarriage.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic uses the descriptive names ذُو الطُّفْيَتَيْنِ (‘the one with two markings/stripes’) and الأَبْتَر (‘the short-tailed one’). The source English witness glosses these as snakes with two white stripes and a short or damaged tail; no species is named in the Arabic.
أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ قَالَ " اقْتُلُوا الْحَيَّاتِ وَاقْتُلُوا ذَا الطُّفْيَتَيْنِ وَالأَبْتَرَ فَإِنَّهُمَا يَلْتَمِسَانِ الْبَصَرَ وَيُسْقِطَانِ الْحَبَلَ " .
ذُو الطُّفْيَتَيْنِ and الأَبْتَر are descriptive snake names; the Arabic does not identify their zoological species, though the English witness adds details about their appearance.
Should these be translated descriptively as ‘two-striped’ and ‘short-tailed’ without a species identification?