Asbagh bin Nabata has reported that five persons who were accused of adultery were once brought to Hazrat Omar (RA). He ordered for their punishment by stoning them all to death.
Hazrat Ali (A) when heard of that, said that the judgeent was wrong.
He then heard them separately and awarded them different punishments as follows:
To the first he awarded the punishment of beheading, stoning to death to the second, whipping to the third and half of the full punishment to the fourth. He set free the fifth after awarding him an ordinary punishment.
When Hazrat Omar (RA) asked Hazrat Ali (A) to explain his above decision, he (Hazrat Ali AS) said to him.
“The first of them is a Zimmi (the one who pays a certain amount to an Islamic State for the safety of his life) who has committed adultery with a Muslim woman; the second is a married man whose punishment under the religious law is stoning to death; the third is an unmarried man, who stands to be punished under the same law by whipping; the fourth is a slave whose punishment in case of adultery as fixed by the religious law is half of the full punishment fixed by the religious law for that crime; the fifth of them is half-mad and has therefore, been awarded an ordinary punishment for one and the same crime committed by others as this punishment has been fixed for such men and women by the religious law.”
Hazrat Omar (RA) while accepting the above Judgment of Hazrat Ali (A) said, “May I not live in the nation wherein there is no Abul Hasan for solving such problems.”
(Manaqib, vol. 2, p. 183; Nasikhut Tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 732, Biharul Anwar vol. 9, p. 478