4895 - Muhammad ibn Mansur informed us, saying: Sufyan narrated to us, from Ayyub ibn Musa, from al-Zuhri, from Urwa, from Aisha, that a woman stole, and she was brought to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. They said: "Who would dare to approach the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, except Usama?" So they spoke to Usama, and he spoke to him. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "O Usama, the Children of Israel were only destroyed because when a noble person among them committed a crime worthy of the prescribed punishment, they left him and did not carry out the punishment upon him, and when a lowly person committed it, they carried out the punishment upon him. By Allah, if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, had stolen, I would have cut off her hand."

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Al-Hafiz said in "al-Fath" 12/90: Our shaykh said in "Sharh al-Tirmidhi": Ibn Uyayna did not hear it from al-Zuhri, nor from anyone who heard it from al-Zuhri; rather, he found it in the book of Ayyub ibn Musa, and he did not explicitly state that he heard it from Ayyub ibn Musa. For this reason, he said in the narration of Ahmad: "I do not know how it is."

There is disagreement over its wording from al-Zuhri. Some of his students narrated it from him with the wording "she borrowed," and some of them narrated it with the wording "she stole."

Narrated with the wording "she borrowed": Ma'mar - as recorded by Ahmad (25297), Muslim (1688): (10), Abu Dawud (4374) and (4397) - and Yunus ibn Yazid - as recorded by Abu Dawud (4396) - and Shu'ayb ibn Abi Hamza, as will come in narration (4898).

Narrated with the wording "she stole": al-Layth ibn Sa'd, as will come in narration (4899), and Isma'il ibn Umayya, as will come in narration (4900), and Ishaq ibn Rashid, as will come in narration (4901), and Yunus ibn Yazid, as will come in narrations (4902) and (4903). Al-Hafiz said in "al-Fath" 12/90: What has become clear to me is that both hadiths are preserved from al-Zuhri, and that he would narrate sometimes with this wording and sometimes with that wording. Yunus narrated both hadiths from him, and each group of al-Zuhri's students - other than Yunus - confined themselves to one of the two hadiths... Then al-Hafiz mentioned a long and valuable discussion reconciling the two narrations, and whether the amputation was for theft or for denial of the debt, so let it be consulted.

(1) After this in (R) and (M) there is an addition: the prescribed punishment.
(2) A sound hadith; the discussion about it has preceded in the previous narration. It is in "al-Sunan al-Kubra" under number (7341).