Umar’s debate with a Sahabi on Mut’ah

We read in Kanz al-Ummal, Volume 7 page 94 Dhikr Mut’ah:

Um Abdullah bint Abi Khuthaima stated that a man came from Syria and said: ‘Celibacy has become difficult for me, arrange a woman for me with whom I can perform mutah’. She replied by directing him to a woman, with whom he eneted into an agreement, and brought forward just witnesses. He stayed with the woman for as long as Allah (swt) wanted him to stay and then left.
Umar received information and summoned me and asked: ‘Is what happened true? I replied: ‘Yes’. He (Umar) said: ‘If he returns let me know’. Upon his return, I informed Umar. He (Umar) summoned him, when he (the man) went to him, Umar asked him: ‘Why you did that?’
The man replied: ‘I performed it during the lifetime of Rasulullah(s), and he never prohibited it until the time of his death. Then I practised it during the time of Abu Bakr and he never prohibited it until the time of his death, I also practised Mut’ah during your reign and you didn’t narrate any evidence of its prohibition.’
Umar replied: ‘By whom my soul in his hand! If I had forbade this before today, I would have stoned you, declare it (to the public) so that they can distinguish nikah from adultery’
Kanz ul Ummal, Volume 7 Hadith 45726

So here we have another example of a companion admitting that there was no such prohibition of Nikah al Mutah right during the era of Holy Prophet (s) and the early days of Umar’s reign.

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