Quran commentary | If any of your women commit fornication, four of you must be witnesses against them.
15 If any of your women commit fornication, four of you must be witnesses against them. If they bear witness, detain them in their homes until death releases them or
Allah ordains another procedure for their case.
In this sūrah, Allah mentions being good to women and giving them their dowries and He also mentions their inheritance together with that of the men. Then He mentions being harsh to them in the case of any fornication they may commit of so that it might not be imagined that a woman be allowed to be lax where chasteness is
concerned. Allātī is the plural of allatī and it is an undefined feminine noun which is definite. It is not permitted to remove the alif-lām from it to
make it indefinite and it is only complete when connected. As we already mentioned, it has three dialectical forms and a plural: allāti without the yā’ but with the kasrah, allā’ī with a hamzah and keeping the yā’, and allā with the hamzah elided. When you make the plural plural, you use allawātī for allāti, allawā’ī for allā’ī. It is related from them as allawāti without the yā’ but with the kasrah. Ibn ash-Shajarī said that. [POEMS WITH FURTHER GRAMMATICAL EXAMPLES] Fāḥishah here means fornication. Faḥishah is an ugly action, and it is a verbal noun like ‘āqibah and ‘āfīyah. Ibn Mas‘ūd recited ‘bi-l-fāḥishati’. ‘Your women’ means Muslim women, not those related by lineage. It explains the state of the believing women. The same usage is seen in 2:282. That is because an unbelieving woman might be connected
to women of the Muslims by lineage but would not not be subject to this ruling. four of you must be witnesses against them.
This means four Muslims. Allah requires four witnesses to 346 fornication in order to make it hard for the claimant and to veil people. Requiring four reputable witnesses to fornication is a firm ruling in both the Gospel and the Qur’an. Allah says: ‘But those who make accusations against chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses: flog them with eighty lashes.’ (24:4) Here He mentions four. Abū Dāwūd reports from Jābir ibn ‘ Abdullāh: ‘The Jews brought a man and woman of theirs who had committed fornication. The Prophet g said, “Fetch me the most knowledgeable two men among you.” They brought him the sons of Ṣūriyā and he asked, “What do
you find in the Torah about the business of these two?” They said, “We find in the Torah that if four testify that they saw his penis in her vagina like a stick in a kohl bottle, then they are stoned.” He asked, “What keeps you from stoning them?” They replied, “Our authority has gone and we dislike killing.” So the Messenger of Allah
g summoned the witnesses and they came and testified that they saw his penis in her vagina like a stick in a kohl bottle, and the Messenger of Allah g commanded that they be stoned.’ Some people say , ‘The witnesses in fornication are four so that there are two witnesses against each of the two parties, as is the case in all rights, since a right is taken from each of them.’ This is weak. The oath deals with property and suspicion in the qasamah, and it does not apply here. The witnesses must be male since He says, ‘minkum’, and there is no disagreement in the Community about that, and they must be of good character because Allah stipulates
good character in sales and retraction, and this is a greater matter so it is more fitting here. This is part of applying the general to the restricted in evidence as mentioned in the fundamental principles of fiqh. They cannot be dhimm_ī_s, although judgment can be made against dhimm_ī_s. That will be discussed in al-Mā’idah. Abū Ḥanīfah added that ‘four of you’ is about the husband when he is one of the witnesses in slander and does not carry out the li‘ān. This will be
explained in an-Nūr.
four of you must be witnesses against them.
This means four Muslims. Allah requires four witnesses to fornication in order to make it hard for the claimant and to veil people. Requiring four reputable witnesses to fornication is a firm ruling in both the Gospel and the Qur’an. Allah says: ‘But those who make accusations against chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses: flog them with eighty lashes.’ (24:4) Here He mentions four. Abū Dāwūd reports from Jābir ibn ‘ Abdullāh: ‘The Jews brought a man and woman of theirs who had committed fornication. The Prophet g said, “Fetch me the most knowledgeable two men among you.” They brought him the sons of Ṣūriyā and he asked, “What do
you find in the Torah about the business of these two?” They said,“We find in the Torah that if four testify that they saw his penis in her vagina like a stick in a kohl bottle, then they are stoned.” He asked, “What keeps you from stoning them?” They replied, “Our authority has gone and we dislike killing.” So the Messenger of Allah
g summoned the witnesses and they came and testified that they saw his penis in her vagina like a stick in a kohl bottle, and the Messenger of Allah g commanded that they be stoned.’ Some people say , ‘The witnesses in fornication are four so that there are two witnesses against each of the two parties, as is the case in all rights, since a right is taken from each of them.’ This is weak. The oath deals with property and suspicion in the qasamah, and it does not apply here. The witnesses must be male since He says, ‘minkum’, and there is no disagreement in the Community about that, and they must be of good character because Allah stipulates good character in sales and retraction, and this is a greater matter so it is more fitting here. This is part of applying the general to the restricted in evidence as mentioned in the fundamental principles of fiqh. They cannot be dhimmīs, although judgment can be made against dhimmīs. That will be discussed in al-Mā’idah. Abū Ḥanīfah added that ‘four of you’ is about the husband when he is one of the witnesses in slander and does not carry out the li‘ān. This will be explained in an-Nūr.
If they bear witness, detain them in their homes
This was the first of the punishments for fornication. It was at the beginning of Islam. ‘Ubādah ibn aṣ-Ṣāmit, al-Ḥasan and Mujāhid said that. That lasted until it was abrogated by the punishment after it and then that was abrogated by the āyah in an-Nūr and stoning for someone previously married. One group said that the corporal
punishment was first and then was abrogated by detaining but the order in recitation is different. Ibn Fūrak mentioned that. Detaining used to be in houses at the beginning of Islam before there were a lot of criminals. When they were a lot and their strength was feared, a prison was constructed for them. Ibn al-‘ Arabī said that.
Scholars disagree about whether prison is a ḥadd punishment or threatening with a ḥadd. One position is that it is threatening a ḥadd and the second that that is an actual hadd. Ibn ‘ Abbās and al-Ḥasan said that. Ibn Zayd said that they were forbidden to marry until they died as a punishment for them when they had unlawful sexual intercourse. This indicates that it was a ḥadd punishment and indeed more severe. However, that ruling ended with the punishment prescribed in the other āyah, according to the difference in the two interpretations about which was first. Both had a term in the words of the Prophet g in the hadith of ‘Ubādah ibn aṣ-Ṣāmit: ‘Take from me. Take from me. Allah has made a way for them: a hundred lashes and exile for a year for a virgin and a hundred lashes and stoning for someone previously married.’ This is like Allah’s words: ‘Fulfil the fast until the night appears.’ (2:187) When night comes, the ruling of fasting is removed; it is not abrogated. This is what is stated
by accurate later scholars from among those who study fundamentals. Abrogation occurs when there are two contradictory positions which cannot be combined. It is possible to combine imprisonment and ignominy , and flogging and stoning. Some scholars said that abuse and ignominy remain with flogging because they are not contradictory and can both be combined against the same person. There is consensus that imprisonment is abrogated. It is permissible to apply abrogation to the like of it. Allah knows best.
Allah ordains another procedure for their case.
In this sūrah, Allah mentions being good to women and giving them their dowries and He also mentions their inheritance together with that of the men. Then He mentions being harsh to them in the case of any fornication they may commit of so that it might not be imagined that a woman be allowed to be lax where chasteness is
concerned. Allātī is the plural of allatī and it is an undefined feminine noun which is definite. It is not permitted to remove the alif-lām from it to
make it indefinite and it is only complete when connected. As we already mentioned, it has three dialectical forms and a plural: allāti without the yā’ but with the kasrah, allā’ī with a hamzah and keeping the yā’, and allā with the hamzah elided. When you make the plural plural, you use allawātī for allāti, allawā’ī for allā’ī. It is related from them as allawāti without the yā’ but with the kasrah. Ibn ash-Shajarī said that. [POEMS WITH FURTHER GRAMMATICAL EXAMPLES] Fāḥishah here means fornication. Faḥishah is an ugly action, and it is a verbal noun like ‘āqibah and ‘āfīyah. Ibn Mas‘ūd recited ‘bi-l-fāḥishati’. ‘Your women’ means Muslim women, not those related by lineage. It explains the state of the believing women. The same usage is seen in 2:282. That is because an unbelieving woman might be connected
to women of the Muslims by lineage but would not not be subject to this ruling. four of you must be witnesses against them.
This means four Muslims. Allah requires four witnesses to 346 fornication in order to make it hard for the claimant and to veil people. Requiring four reputable witnesses to fornication is a firm ruling in both the Gospel and the Qur’an. Allah says: ‘But those who make accusations against chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses: flog them with eighty lashes.’ (24:4) Here He mentions four. Abū Dāwūd reports from Jābir ibn ‘ Abdullāh: ‘The Jews brought a man and woman of theirs who had committed fornication. The Prophet g said, “Fetch me the most knowledgeable two men among you.” They brought him the sons of Ṣūriyā and he asked, “What do
you find in the Torah about the business of these two?” They said, “We find in the Torah that if four testify that they saw his penis in her vagina like a stick in a kohl bottle, then they are stoned.” He asked, “What keeps you from stoning them?” They replied, “Our authority has gone and we dislike killing.” So the Messenger of Allah
g summoned the witnesses and they came and testified that they saw his penis in her vagina like a stick in a kohl bottle, and the Messenger of Allah g commanded that they be stoned.’ Some people say , ‘The witnesses in fornication are four so that there are two witnesses against each of the two parties, as is the case in all rights, since a right is taken from each of them.’ This is weak. The oath deals with property and suspicion in the qasamah, and it does not apply here. The witnesses must be male since He says, ‘minkum’, and there is no disagreement in the Community about that, and they must be of good character because Allah stipulates
good character in sales and retraction, and this is a greater matter so it is more fitting here. This is part of applying the general to the restricted in evidence as mentioned in the fundamental principles of fiqh. They cannot be dhimm_ī_s, although judgment can be made against dhimm_ī_s. That will be discussed in al-Mā’idah. Abū Ḥanīfah added that ‘four of you’ is about the husband when he is one of the witnesses in slander and does not carry out the li‘ān. This will be
explained in an-Nūr.
four of you must be witnesses against them.
This means four Muslims. Allah requires four witnesses to fornication in order to make it hard for the claimant and to veil people. Requiring four reputable witnesses to fornication is a firm ruling in both the Gospel and the Qur’an. Allah says: ‘But those who make accusations against chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses: flog them with eighty lashes.’ (24:4) Here He mentions four. Abū Dāwūd reports from Jābir ibn ‘ Abdullāh: ‘The Jews brought a man and woman of theirs who had committed fornication. The Prophet g said, “Fetch me the most knowledgeable two men among you.” They brought him the sons of Ṣūriyā and he asked, “What do
you find in the Torah about the business of these two?” They said,“We find in the Torah that if four testify that they saw his penis in her vagina like a stick in a kohl bottle, then they are stoned.” He asked, “What keeps you from stoning them?” They replied, “Our authority has gone and we dislike killing.” So the Messenger of Allah
g summoned the witnesses and they came and testified that they saw his penis in her vagina like a stick in a kohl bottle, and the Messenger of Allah g commanded that they be stoned.’ Some people say , ‘The witnesses in fornication are four so that there are two witnesses against each of the two parties, as is the case in all rights, since a right is taken from each of them.’ This is weak. The oath deals with property and suspicion in the qasamah, and it does not apply here. The witnesses must be male since He says, ‘minkum’, and there is no disagreement in the Community about that, and they must be of good character because Allah stipulates good character in sales and retraction, and this is a greater matter so it is more fitting here. This is part of applying the general to the restricted in evidence as mentioned in the fundamental principles of fiqh. They cannot be dhimmīs, although judgment can be made against dhimmīs. That will be discussed in al-Mā’idah. Abū Ḥanīfah added that ‘four of you’ is about the husband when he is one of the witnesses in slander and does not carry out the li‘ān. This will be explained in an-Nūr.
If they bear witness, detain them in their homes
This was the first of the punishments for fornication. It was at the beginning of Islam. ‘Ubādah ibn aṣ-Ṣāmit, al-Ḥasan and Mujāhid said that. That lasted until it was abrogated by the punishment after it and then that was abrogated by the āyah in an-Nūr and stoning for someone previously married. One group said that the corporal
punishment was first and then was abrogated by detaining but the order in recitation is different. Ibn Fūrak mentioned that. Detaining used to be in houses at the beginning of Islam before there were a lot of criminals. When they were a lot and their strength was feared, a prison was constructed for them. Ibn al-‘ Arabī said that.
Scholars disagree about whether prison is a ḥadd punishment or threatening with a ḥadd. One position is that it is threatening a ḥadd and the second that that is an actual hadd. Ibn ‘ Abbās and al-Ḥasan said that. Ibn Zayd said that they were forbidden to marry until they died as a punishment for them when they had unlawful sexual intercourse. This indicates that it was a ḥadd punishment and indeed more severe. However, that ruling ended with the punishment prescribed in the other āyah, according to the difference in the two interpretations about which was first. Both had a term in the words of the Prophet g in the hadith of ‘Ubādah ibn aṣ-Ṣāmit: ‘Take from me. Take from me. Allah has made a way for them: a hundred lashes and exile for a year for a virgin and a hundred lashes and stoning for someone previously married.’ This is like Allah’s words: ‘Fulfil the fast until the night appears.’ (2:187) When night comes, the ruling of fasting is removed; it is not abrogated. This is what is stated
by accurate later scholars from among those who study fundamentals. Abrogation occurs when there are two contradictory positions which cannot be combined. It is possible to combine imprisonment and ignominy , and flogging and stoning. Some scholars said that abuse and ignominy remain with flogging because they are not contradictory and can both be combined against the same person. There is consensus that imprisonment is abrogated. It is permissible to apply abrogation to the like of it. Allah knows best.
