Hadith 26749

Malik related to me from Nafi that Safiyya bint Abi Ubaydinformed him that a man who had had intercourse with a virgin slave-girl and made her pregnant was brought to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. Heconfessed to fornication, and he was not muhsan. Abu Bakr gave theorder and he was flogged with the hadd punishment. Then he wasbanished to Fadak, (thirty miles from Madina).Malik spokeabout a person who confessed to fornication and then retracted it andsaid, "I didn't do it. I said that for such-and-such a reason," and hementioned the reason. Malik said, "That is accepted from him and thehadd is not imposed on him. That is because the hadd is what is forAllah, and it is only applied by one of two means, either by a clearproof which establishes guilt or by a confession which is persisted inso that the hadd is imposed. If someone persists in his confession,the hadd is imposed on him."Malik said, "I have not seen thepeople of knowledge exiling slaves who have committed adultery."