Al-Bara’ b. Azib said:

The people passed by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with a jew whose face blackened with charcoal and he was being taken around. He adjured them by Allah and asked: What is the prescribed punishment for a fornicator in your Divine book? He (the narrator) said: They referred him to a man of them. The Prophet ﷺ adjured him and asked: What is the punishment for a fornication in your Divine Book? He replied: Stoning. But fornication spread among our people of rank, so we disliked that a person of rank should be left alone and the punishment be inflicted on one who is lower in rank than him. So we suspended it for us. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then commanded regarding him and he was stoned to death. He then said: O Allah! I am the first to give life to a command of Thy Book which they had killed.

حَدَّثَنَا مُسَدَّدٌ، حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الْوَاحِدِ بْنُ زِيَادٍ، عَنِ الأَعْمَشِ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مُرَّةَ، عَنِ الْبَرَاءِ بْنِ عَازِبٍ، قَالَ مَرُّوا عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ بِيَهُودِيٍّ قَدْ حُمِّمَ وَجْهُهُ وَهُوَ يُطَافُ بِهِ فَنَاشَدَهُمْ مَا حَدُّ الزَّانِي فِي كِتَابِهِمْ قَالَ فَأَحَالُوهُ عَلَى رَجُلٍ مِنْهُمْ فَنَشَدَهُ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ " مَا حَدُّ الزَّانِي فِي كِتَابِكُمْ " . فَقَالَ الرَّجْمُ وَلَكِنْ ظَهَرَ الزِّنَا فِي أَشْرَافِنَا فَكَرِهْنَا أَنْ يُتْرَكَ الشَّرِيفُ وَيُقَامَ عَلَى مَنْ دُونَهُ فَوَضَعْنَا هَذَا عَنَّا . فَأَمَرَ بِهِ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ فَرُجِمَ ثُمَّ قَالَ " اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَوَّلُ مَنْ أَحْيَا مَا أَمَاتُوا مِنْ كِتَابِكَ " .