١٠. tradition is reported by Ata. He said:

I heard Ibn Abbas say, "May God have mercy on Umar. Al-muta was nothing but a mercy from God, the Exalted, with which He had shown compassion to the commu‌ nity ofMul: ammad (peace be upon him and his progeny). Had he not prohibited it, no one would have been in need of fornicating except a few."٦٦

The traditions that have been used to support the view of those who maintain the abrogation of the verse onal-muta are of various kinds. Some among them are traced back to al-Rabi b. Sabra on the authority of his father-these are numerous. In some of them it is asserted explicitly that the Prophet stood between the Rukn and the Maqam, or the Bab of the Maqam [in the mosque of Kaba], and announced the pro‌ hibition of the muta until the Day of Resurrection. Others among them are traced back to the Imam Ali, and they relate that he reported from the Messenger of God that it was unlawful. Still others are transmitted from Salma b. al-Akwa.
As for those which are traced back to Sabra, in spite of the fact that they are re‌ ported from many sources, they are all related on the authority of one person, namely, Sabra. Consequently, as established earlier in this work, a single narrative cannot be used as evidence of abrogation [of a Quranic injunction]. In addition, the substance of some of these traditions proves their falsity. How can it be rationally accepted that the Prophet stood,delivering a sermon, between the Rukn and the Maqam, or between the Bab and the Maqam, announcing the prohibition of a thing, until the Day of Resurrec‌ tion, to the assembled crowd of Muslims, and yet no one except Sabra heard it? Or, that no one among the thousands assembled, except him, reported it? Where were those Emigrants (Muhajirun) and Helpers (An,sar) who used to gather everything that the Prophet said or did? Where were those narrators, who took great care to register every movement of the Prophets hands and the glances of the Prophets eyes, to participate along with Sabra in relating the prohibition of themuta until the Day of Resurrection? More important, where was Umar himself, when this declaration was made, to spare himself from attributing the prohibition of the muta to himself? Additionally, Sabras traditions are riddled with contradictions, and belie one another. In some of them the prohibition is placed in the year when Mekka was conquered;٦٧ in others it took place during the Farewell Pilgrimage [the Prophets last pilgrimage].٦٨ In conclusion, Sabras traditions regarding the prohibition are unreliable for more than one reason.
As for what has been related on the authority of Ali b. Abi Talib, regarding the prohibition of the mut a marriage, it is undoubtedly fabricated. The reason is that there is a consensus among Muslims that the mut a was still lawful in the year of the conquest of Mekka. How then can it be possible that Ali would use a report from Ibn Abbas to show that the muta was made unlawful during the Battle of Khaybar? It is for this reason that some have suggested the possibility that the phrase "from the time of Khaybar" is connected not with the mut a, but with the preceding narrative, which deals with tne prohibition of the meat of the domestic ass. This possibility has been related on the authority oflbn Uyayna, as reported inal-Muntaqa and inSunan al-Bayhaqf in the section on al-muta.
However, such a probability is unfounded [for several reasons].
First, it is contrary to the rules of the Arabic language. The negation in the report occurs [only] once, at the beginning of the sentence [the Prophet has forbidden ...]