Question: What is the status of the hadith in which it is reported by A’isha that there was a Quranic verse revealed about stoning and breastfeeding and it was eaten? The narration is as follows on the authority of A’isha, the Mother of Believers:
Verily, the verses of stoning and breastfeeding were revealed and in the copy of the Qur’an under the bed. When Allah’s Messenger died, we were preoccupied with his death and a goat came and ate it.
Answer: This report is narrated by other than the Zaydi imams. Ibn Maajah and other scholars of hadith have narrated it. As for the Prophetic Descendants and their collected texts, there is no such report. Indeed, Imam al-Mutawakkil ‘ala Allah Ahmed b. Suleiman, upon him be peace, weakened this hadith and objected to it. He said as a rebuttal against the one who used this narration as a proof for the latter’s view on breastfeeding:
If it is said that it is narrated on the authority of A’isha that Allah revealed in the Qur’an that ten breastfeedings makes one related…and that Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him and his Progeny, died while this was recited in the Qur’an and that this part of the Qur’an was eaten by a goat while they were preoccupied with his death, we say that this report is invalid from multiple perspectives. First, if it were a part of the Qur’an, it should have been persevered. Allah says: {Verily We hath revealed the Reminder and We shall preserve it} (Q. 15:9). Second, it cannot be that Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him and his Progeny, died and did not convey to the people anything that was revealed to him. Allah says: {O Messenger, convey what has been revealed unto thee from thy Lord. If ye do it not, ye hath not conveyed His message} (Q. 5:67). Third, the word of one person is unacceptable and it is not narrated from anyone else other than A’isha. Therefore, the invalidity of this report is correct.
[source:
Usuul al-Ahkaam fi al-Halaal wa al-Haraam]
And Allah knows best!
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