Similar to this was narrated from Ali, Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Umar, Abu Humayd and Abu Usayd al-Sa'idi, Fatima the daughter of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), Alqamah, al-Aswad, al-Hasan (18), al-Zuhri, Hubayrah ibn Yarim (19), Abu Maysarah, Malik, al-Thawri, al-Shafi'i, Abu Thawr, and Ibn al-Mundhir. Ibn Abi Layla said: "I encountered the remnant of the Ansar flogging their slave girls with the prescribed punishments in their gatherings when they committed adultery." From al-Hasan ibn Muhammad, that Fatima punished a slave girl of hers who committed adultery. And from Ibrahim, that Alqamah and al-Aswad used to carry out the prescribed punishments on those who committed adultery among the servants of their clans. Sa'id narrated that in his "Sunan" (20). The scholars of opinion (Ashab al-Ra'y) said: He does not have that right, because the prescribed punishments (hudud) belong to the Sultan (authority), and because one who does not possess the authority to carry out the punishment on a free person does not possess it over a slave, just like a child. And because the punishment is not binding except through evidence or confession, and it is subject to conditions, such as the integrity of the witnesses, their arrival in a group or in a single session, the mention of the reality of the adultery, and other conditions that require a jurist to know them, to know the disagreement regarding them, and what is correct among them. Likewise is the case with confession; therefore, it is appropriate that this be delegated to the Imam or his deputy, like the punishment of free persons. And because it is a punishment that is a right of Allah (21) the Almighty, it is delegated to the Imam, like execution and amputation. Our evidence is what Sa'id narrated (22): Sufyan told us, from Ayyub ibn Musa, from Sa'id ibn Abi Sa'id, from Abu Hurayrah, from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) that he said: "If the slave girl of one of you commits adultery, and her adultery is clearly established (23), let him flog her and not reproach (24) her. If she returns (to the sin), let him flog her and not reproach her. If she returns, let him flog her and not reproach her. If she returns a fourth time,"