Sufyan said: Al-Zuhri narrated this hadith while Mansur ibn al-Mu'tamir and Mikhwal ibn Rashid were with him, so he said to them: "Be the delegates of the people of Iraq with this hadith."

4486 - Isma'il ibn Musa al-Fazari narrated to us, Sharik narrated to us, from Abu Hasin, from Umayr ibn Sa'id, from 'Ali, who said: I would not pay blood money — or I would never pay blood money — for anyone upon whom I carried out a prescribed punishment, except the wine-drinker, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not establish a fixed rule concerning it; it is merely something we ourselves determined.

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Abu al-Tayyib al-'Azim Abadi said in "'Awn al-Ma'bud" 12/124: The meaning of al-Zuhri's statement is that since Mansur ibn al-Mu'tamir and Mikhwal ibn Rashid were from the people of Iraq, al-Zuhri said to them after narrating this hadith to them: "Go with this hadith to the people of Iraq and inform them of it," so that they would know that the killing for drinking wine on the fourth occasion is abrogated, and that the abrogating text is this very hadith. And Allah Most High knows best.

(1) A sound hadith, and this chain is good in follow-up narrations because of Sharik — who is Ibn 'Abdullah al-Nakha'i — for he had a poor memory, and he has a follow-up. Abu Hasin: he is 'Uthman ibn 'Asim al-Asadi.

Al-Bukhari also recorded it (6778), Muslim (1707), Ibn Majah (2569), and al-Nasa'i in "al-Kubra" (5252) and (5253) through multiple routes from Umayr ibn Sa'id, from him. It is in "Musnad Ahmad" (1024).

Al-Bayhaqi said in "al-Sunan al-Kubra" 8/322: He meant — and Allah knows best — that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not establish it as more than forty, or he did not establish it with whips, for he had established it with sandals and the ends of garments, to the measure of forty. And Allah knows best.

"Adi" (أدي): the present tense of "wada" (ودى) — "yadihi" (يديه) — meaning: if he paid his blood money. His statement "for anyone upon whom I carried out a prescribed punishment" is the object.

Al-Hafiz said: The reconciliation between the hadith of 'Ali that explicitly states that the Prophet ﷺ lashed forty and that it was a sunnah, and his other hadith mentioned here that the Prophet ﷺ did not establish a fixed rule concerning it, is that the negation is understood to mean that he did not fix the eighty, i.e., he did not establish anything in excess of the forty. This is supported by his statement: "It is merely something we ourselves did."