Question Summary:
Hadith on monkeys stoning?

Question Detail:

I have a question about a hadeeth found in Sahih al-Bukhari. Reason behind me asking is because there is a person on a forums saying he has left 'sunnism' and has basically become a 'hadith rejector' a'oothubillahiminashshaytannirrajeem. Of course these people are easy to refute but he uses to try and 'support' his argument with his hadith, which I'm not too sure about.
Hadith:
 

Narrated `Amr bin Maimun:

During the pre-lslamic period of ignorance I saw a she-monkey surrounded by a number of monkeys. They were all stoning it, because it had committed illegal sexual intercourse. I too, stoned it along with them.
 

Can you explain the context and what the hadith is actually about?
 

Reference
 : Sahih al-Bukhari 3849

In-book reference
 : Book 63, Hadith 75

USC-MSA web (English) reference
 : Vol. 5, Book 58, Hadith 188

  (deprecated numbering scheme)

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh.
The narration in question is found in Sahīh al-Bukhārī on the authority of ‘Amr ibn Maymūm (rahimahullāh).
(Abū ‘Abdillāh) ‘Amr ibn Maymūn al-Awdī (d. 74 H) was a senior Tābi‘ī who was born in the period of Jāhiliyyah (pre-Islamic ignorance), and accepted Islām in Yemen at the hand of Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal (radiyAllāhu ‘anh) in the lifetime of Rasūlullāh (sallAllāhu ‘alayhi wasallam). However, he did not meet Nabī (sallAllāhu ‘alayhi wasallam), and is hence considered a Tābi‘ī and not a Sahābī. He narrated hadīths from a number of the senior Sahābah, including ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb and ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ūd. His hadiths are found in the six famous collections of hadīth.[1]
The report mentioned in the question was narrated in summary-form by Imām al-Bukhārī in his Sahīh. Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī quotes the full narration on the authority of al-Ismā‘īlī:
‘Īsā ibn Hittān narrated from ‘Amr ibn Maymūn that he said:
I was in Yemen [watching] over a herd [of goats and sheep] belonging to my family at an elevated place. I saw a male monkey arrive with a female monkey, and she utilised her hand as a pillow (for him). Then, a male monkey smaller than him came and signaled to her, so she gently withdrew her hand from beneath the head of the first male monkey, and followed him. He mated with her while I was watching. Then I returned and she gently inserted her hand beneath the cheek of the first (male monkey). He woke up in fear, sniffed her and screamed. The (other) monkeys gathered. He began to scream and point at her with his hand. The monkeys dispersed right and left, and brought that monkey. I recognised it. They dug a pit for them, and they stoned them. Indeed I witnessed stoning outside of the children of Ādam.[2]
In the commentary of this narration, Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī explains that these were descendants of monkeys that had interacted with those Israelites of pre-Islāmic times that were transformed into monkeys (see: Qur’an, 2:65, 5:60, 7:166). Some of the habits of those transformed humans passed onto the original monkeys, by imitation and copying. (The human beings themselves that were transformed into monkeys left no descendants.)
Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī says:
It is likely that those (Isrā’īlī Jews) that were transformed, when they were changed into the form of monkeys, with their understandings intact, the original monkeys interacted with them, due to the resemblance in form, and they received from them some of what they saw from their actions, and they preserved them and they became imbedded in them.
Monkeys are unique in this as they are more perspicacious than other animals. Unlike most animals, they have the potential for learning every craft. From its characteristics is that it laughs, excites and imitates what it sees. It has excess jealousy that rivals a human…And from its characteristics is that the female conceives its children like a human, and sometimes the monkey walks on two of its feet, but it doesn’t remain on that. It holds things with its hand and eats with its hand. It has fingers divided into units and nails...[3]
Modern science too has shown that most primate species – e.g. gorillas – are polygynous, i.e. males have multiple mates but females have only one mate.[4] Moreover, they display copying behaviour that spreads rapidly throughout groups of monkeys.[5] Hence, Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī’s explanation is sensible, and there is no legitimate grounds for rejecting the report.
And Allah Ta‘ālā Knows Best
Zameelur Rahman
Student Darul Iftaa
UK
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.
www.daruliftaa.net