It is narrated from Sayyiduna al-Bara' bin Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: In the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I was searching for some camels of mine that had gone astray. While I was wandering among some houses, I suddenly saw riders and horsemen who came and surrounded (a house) and brought a man out. They neither questioned him nor spoke to him, until they struck off his head. When they had gone, I asked about him, and the people said: "He had married his father's wife."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Ghaylan bin Salamah al-Thaqafi (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam while he had ten wives, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded him to keep only four of them. The early students of Sa'id, such as Yazid bin Zuray', Isma'il bin Ulayyah, Ghundar and the other hadith masters of Basrah, narrated it in this same way. However, Imam Muslim bin al-Hajjaj ruled that in this hadith Ma'mar fell into error in Basrah, but that if a trustworthy narrator other than the Basrans narrated it from Ma'mar, we would judge it to be sahih. So I found the narrations of Sufyan al-Thawri, Abdur-Rahman bin Muhammad al-Muharibi and Isa bin Yunus (who are Kufans), who narrated it from Ma'mar. As for the hadith of al-Thawri:

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Ghaylan bin Salamah (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam while he had ten wives, so the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded him to choose (only) four of them.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Ghaylan bin Salamah (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam while he had ten wives whom he had married in the time of Ignorance (Jahiliyyah), and those wives also accepted Islam with him. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Choose four of them."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Ghaylan bin Salamah al-Thaqafi (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam while he had ten wives, so the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded him to choose four of them and leave the rest.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Ghaylan bin Salamah al-Thaqafi (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam while he had eight wives, so the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded him to choose four of them. The people of Yamamah narrated it from Ma'mar in this same way.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Ghaylan bin Salamah al-Thaqafi (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam while he had ten wives, so the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded him to retain four in his marriage and separate from the rest. The conclusion of my research is that Ma'mar bin Rashid narrated it in two ways: sometimes he narrated it as mursal and sometimes as muttasil (connected). The evidence for this is that those Basrans who narrated it from him as connected also narrated it as mursal. And connection (wasl) takes precedence over irsal, because an addition from a trustworthy narrator is accepted. And Allah knows best.

It is narrated from Habib al-Mu'allim that a man from Kufah came to Amr bin Shu'ayb and said: "Are you not amazed that al-Hasan al-Basri says that a fornicator who has been flogged (with the prescribed punishment) may marry only a (flogged) woman like himself?" Amr said: "What is there to be amazed at? Sa'id al-Maqburi narrated this very hadith to us from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) used to proclaim it aloud (in the mosque)." The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that a man from among the Muslims asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for permission to marry a woman called "Umm Mahzul", who used to commit fornication and had stipulated that she would spend on the man (from her own wealth). The man asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for permission regarding her and mentioned her whole situation to him, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) recited this verse: 'The fornicator does not marry except a fornicatress or a polytheist woman', and this was revealed: 'and the fornicatress, none marries her except a fornicator or a polytheist man' [Surah al-Nur: 3] (and that has been made unlawful for the believers). This hadith is sahih (authentic) in its chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said concerning the saying of Allah Almighty: 'The fornicator does not marry except a fornicatress or a polytheist woman' [Surah al-Nur: 3] : "Know that what is meant by it is not lawful marriage; rather what is meant is intercourse (fornication), that is, no one commits fornication with her (the fornicatress) except a fornicator or a polytheist." Its chain is sahih (authentic), but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.