Back to search

To what extent is the story of "Dhī al-Rijl" – found in Ibn Qudāmah’s book "Kitāb al-Tawwābīn" (The Book of Those Who Repent) – authentic in terms of its chain of narration (sanad), and what is the opinion regarding the aforementioned book?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The book "Al-Tawwabin" (The Repentant) by Muwaffaq Ibn Qudamah is a famous book in which he mentioned 130 stories of repentance. However, some of the stories within it, especially those narrated from previous nations, require review and critique due to their strangeness and contradiction with Islamic law. An example is the story of "the repentance of Dhul-Rijl (the man with the leg)." This story tells of a worshipper from the Children of Israel who intended to commit a sin, so he left his leg hanging from his hermitage until it was severed. This story is objectionable, far from reality, incompatible with any divine law, and attributable to the actions of an ignorant or extremist worshipper.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy