‘A’isha reported the Prophet (ﷺ) as saying, “A thief’s hand should be cut off only for a quarter of a dinar and upwards.” (Bukhari and Muslim).

Ibn ‘Umar said the Prophet (ﷺ) had a thief’s hand cut off for a shield worth three dirhams. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

Abu Huraira reported the Prophet (ﷺ) as saying, “God curse a thief who steals an egg and has his hand cut off, and steals a rope and has his hand cut off!”* (Bukhari and Muslim.) *It has been suggested that baida (egg or steel helmet) should have the latter meaning and that a ship’s rope should be understood, but the translation above is usually accepted as the meaning.

‘A'isha said Quraish were anxious about the Makhzumi woman who had committed theft and asked, “Who will speak to God’s Messenger about her?” Then they said, “Who will be bold enough for it but Usama b. Zaid, God’s Messenger’s friend?” So Usama spoke to him and God’s Messenger said, “Are you interceding regarding one of the punishments prescribed by God?” He then got up and gave an address, saying, “What destroyed your predecessors was just that when a person of rank among them committed a theft they left him alone, but when a weak one of their number committed a theft they inflicted the prescribed punishment on him. I swear by God that if Fatima daughter of Muhammad should steal I would have her hand cut off.” (Bukhari and Muslim). In a version by Muslim she said that a Makhzumi woman used to borrow goods and deny having received them, so the Prophet (ﷺ) gave orders that her hand should be cut off. Her family went and spoke to Usama and he spoke about her to God's Messenger. Then he mentioned the tradition in similar form to what has preceded.

Anas told that the Prophet (ﷺ) gave a beating with palm branches and sandals for drinking wine and that Abu Bakr gave forty lashes. (Bukhari and Muslim.) In a version on his authority it says that the Prophet (ﷺ) used to give forty stripes with palm branches and sandals for drinking wine.

‘Umair b. Sa'id an-Nakha‘i told that he heard ‘Ali b. Abu Talib say, “I am not one to have any feelings about a man who dies when I inflict a prescribed punishment on him, with the exception of one who has drunk wine, for if he were to die I would pay blood wit for him. Thai is because God’s Messenger did not lay down any specific custom regarding him.” (Bukhari and Muslim.)

Abu Huraira told that al-Aslami (i.e. Ma’iz. See p. 759) came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and testified four times that he had had illicit intercourse with a woman, while he all the time was turning away from him. Then when he confessed a fifth time he turned round and asked if he had had intercourse with her, and when he replied that he had he asked if he had done it so that his member penetrated hers. He replied that he had, and he asked whether he had done it like a collyrium stick when enclosed in its case and a rope in a well. On his replying that it was so, he asked whether he knew what fornication was and he replied, “Yes, I have done with her unlawfully what a man may lawfully do with his wife.” He then asked what he wanted by what he had said and he replied that he wanted him to purify him, so he gave command and he was stoned to death. Then God’s prophet heard one of his companions saying to another, “Look at this man whose fault was concealed by God but who could not leave the matter alone, so that he was stoned like a dog." He said nothing to them but walked on for a time till he came to the corpse of an ass with its legs in the air. He then asked where so and so and so and so were, and when they replied that they were there he said, “Go down and eat some of this ass’s corpse.” They replied, “Prophet of God, who can eat any of this?” whereupon he said, “The dishonour you have just shown to your brother is more serious than eating some of it. By Him in whose hand my soul is, he is now among the rivers of paradise plunging into them.” Abu Dawud transmitted it.

Abu Burda b. Niyar reported the Prophet (ﷺ) as saying, “No more than ten lashes are to be given, except in the case of one of the punishments prescribed by God.” (Bukhari and Muslim.)

Ibn 'Umar told that ‘Umar gave an address on God’s Messenger’s pulpit, saying, “The prohibition of wine has come down (Al-Qur’an, 5:90) and it comes from five things: grapes, dates, wheat, barley and honey. Wine (khamr) is what infects (khamara) the mind.” Bukhari transmitted it.

Anas said: Wine was forbidden when it was forbidden (i.e. by the Qur’an), but we get only a little of the wine from grapes, most of our wine being from unripe dates and dry dates. Bukhari transmitted it.

'A’isha said that when God’s Messenger was asked about bit’, which is the nabidh* from honey, he replied, “Every liquor which intoxicates is forbidden.” (Bukhari and Muslim.) * Nabidh is a drink made from dates, raisins, honey, wheat, barley, etc. The ingredients were steeped in water in a vessel, and provided the drink was used before fermentation took place it was lawful.

‘A’isha reported God’s Messenger as saying, “If a faraq of anything causes intoxication, a handful of it is forbidden.”* Ahmad, Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud transmitted it. * To drink as much as a faraq (see p. 577) would be almost impossible, so the point of the tradition is to forbid anything which might in any conceivable circumstances cause intoxication.

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said he had wine belonging to an orphan, and when al-Ma'idah (Al-Qur’an, 5) came down he asked God’s Messenger about it, telling him it belonged to an orphan, but he said, “Pour it out.” Tirmidhi transmitted it.

‘Abdallah b. ‘Amr told that the Prophet (ﷺ) forbade wine, maisir, the kuba and ghubaira,* saying, “Every intoxicant is prohibited.” Abd Dawud transmitted it. *This is a comprehensive tradition not exclusively dealing with intoxicants, although the Prophet’s words might suggest that it does. Maisir was a game of chance and the kuba was a kind of drum wide at the ends and narrow in the middle which was looked on with disapproval. The parts which refer to intoxicants are the wine (khamr) and the ghubaira' which was an intoxicant made by Abyssinians from millet.