3638 — Muhammad ibn al-‘Alā’ narrated to us, Abū Usāmah narrated to us, from al-Walīd — meaning Ibn Kathīr — from Abū Mālik ibn Tha‘labah, from his father Tha‘labah ibn Abī Mālik, that he heard their elders mention: that a man from Quraysh had a share in [the lands of] Banū Qurayẓah, and he brought a dispute to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ concerning the canal of the floodwater whose water they divided among themselves. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ judged between them that the water should reach the ankles, and that the one upstream should not withhold it from the one downstream.

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And the people have differed regarding the interpretation of this ḥadīth:

Some went to the view that the first statement from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was only by way of consultation for al-Zubayr, and by way of asking that he should graciously yield to his Anṣārī neighbor, not as a binding judgment against him. But when the Anṣārī opposed him, he judged against him according to what was obligatory by the ruling of the religion.

And some went to the view that he had committed disbelief when he suspected the Messenger of Allah ﷺ of favoring al-Zubayr, since he was the son of his maternal aunt. And that this statement of his was an apostasy from the religion, and when he apostatized from Islam, his ownership over his property lapsed, and it became fay’ (spoils), so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave it to al-Zubayr, since he had the right to dispose of the fay’ wherever Allah Almighty showed him.

And in it there is a basis for those who hold the permissibility of abrogating something before it is acted upon.

And al-Mundhirī said in “Mukhtaṣar al-Sunan”: al-ḥarrah: every land with black stones, and that is due to the intensity of its heat and the blazing of the sun upon it.

And al-jadhr: with a fatḥah on the jīm and a sukūn on the dāl without diacritical points, meaning: the wall.

And his statement: “that he was the son of your maternal aunt” — it is with a fatḥah on the hamzah of anna, the lightened form, and it is for causation, as if he said: “You ruled in his favor with precedence because he is the son of your maternal aunt.” And the mother of al-Zubayr was Ṣafiyyah bint ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib.

(1) Ṣaḥīḥ by virtue of corroborating evidence, but this chain is weak due to the unknown status of Abū Mālik — and it is said: Mālik, which is the more famous form of his name — ibn Tha‘labah. And there is disagreement regarding whether Tha‘labah was a Companion.
It was also narrated by Ibn Mājah (2481) via the route of Zakariyyā ibn Manẓūr ibn Tha‘labah ibn Abī Mālik, from Muḥammad ibn ‘Uqbah ibn Abī Mālik, from his uncle Tha‘labah ibn Abī Mālik. And Zakariyyā ibn Manẓūr is weak. =