FLOGGING COULD BE POSTPONED

If a woman has just delivered and there is an apprehension that flogging might kill her, she may be spared �until she is alright� (4225).

�AlI says: �O people, impose the prescribed punishment upon your slaves, those who are married and those not married, for a slave-woman belonging to Allah�s Messenger had committed adultery, and he committed me to flog her.  But she had recently given birth to a child and I was afraid that if I flogged her I might kill her.  So I mentioned that to Allah�s Messenger and he said �You have done well� � (4224).  The Prophet was a merciful man.

On the basis of this hadIs, Muslim jurists conclude that flogging can be spread over several days, depending on the physical condition of the offender; and if he is sick, the flogging can be postponed until he recovers.

author : ram swarup

A SLAVE ADULTERESS

A more lenient view was taken in cases of adultery involving slave-women.  A slave-woman, even if she was married, was not to be stoned to death, and if she was unmarried, she was liable to half the penalty (fifty strokes).  If a slave-girl is unprotected (unmarried) and �commits adultery, then flog her and if she commits adultery again, then flog her and then sell her even for a rope of hair� (4221).

author : ram swarup

A MOSAIC PRACTICE REVIVED

The punishment of stoning to death (rajm) is Mosaic.  The Old Testament prescribes it for adultery and fornication (Deuteronomy 22:19-23), and also for those who �serve other gods� (Deuteronomy 13:10).  Muhammad retained it for adultery but prescribed death by other means for crimes like apostasy.

Among the Jews themselves, by the time of Muhammad, stoning had fallen into disuse.  According to one tradition, a Jew and a Jewess who had committed adultery were brought to Muhammad.  He asked the Jews what their Torah prescribed for such offenses.  The Jews replied: �We darken their [the culprits�] faces and make them ride on a donkey with their faces turned to the opposite direction.� Muhammad said: �Bring the Torah.� The prescribed punishment was found to be stoning to death.  So �Allah�s Messenger pronounced judgment about both of them and they were stoned,� says �Abdullah, the son of �Umar.  �I was one of those who stoned them, and I saw him [the Jew] protecting her [the Jewess] with his body,� he adds (4211).

Another hadIs gives more details about the same incident.  The Jews sent the two accused to Muhammad, telling their chiefs: �Go to Muhammad; if he commands you to blacken the face and award flogging as punishment, then accept it; but if he gives verdict for stoning, then avoid it.� Muhammad was grieved at this softening of the Scriptures.  But Allah comforted him: �O Messenger, the behaviour of those who vie with one another in denying the truth should not grieve you� (QurAn 5:41).  Allah also told him that �they who do not judge in accordance with what Allah has revealed-they are indeed wrongdoers, they are the iniquitous� (5:45, 47).  The man and woman were stoned to death at Muhammad�s order, and he was happy and thanked Allah: �O Allah, I am the first to revive thy command when they had made it dead� (4214).

author : ram swarup

MODEL PERSECUTION

These cases provide a model for all future persecutions.  When a woman is to be stoned, a chest-deep hole is dug for her, just as was done in the case of GhamdIya (the woman of GhAmid), so that her nakedness is not exposed and the modesty of the watching multitude is not offended.  No such hole need be dug for a man, as no such hole was dug for MA�iz, the self-confessed adulterer whose case we have just narrated.

The stoning is begun by the witnesses, followed by the imAm or qAzI, and then by the participating believers.  But in the case of a self-confessed criminal, the first stone is cast by the imAm or qAzI, following the example of the Prophet in the case of GhamdIya.  And then the multitudes follow.  The QurAn and the Sunnah, in fact, enjoin the believers to both watch and actively participate in the execution.  �Do not let pity for them take hold of you in Allah�s religion. . . . and let a party of the believers witness their torment,� the QurAn urges while prescribing punishment for the fornicators.

FORNICATION AND ADULTERY JOINED

In a case of zinA in which one party is married and the other party unmarried, the former is punished for adultery and the latter for fornication.  AbU Huraira narrates one such case involving a man and woman belonging to desert tribes.  A young bachelor found employment as a servant in a certain household and committed zinA with the master�s wife.  His father gave one hundred goats and a slave-girl in ransom, but when the case was brought before Muhammad, he judged it �according to the Book of Allah.� He ordered the slave-girl and the goats to be returned and punished the young man for fornication �with one hundred lashes and exile for one year.� The woman was punished for adultery.  �Allah�s Messenger made pronouncement about her and she was stoned to death� (4029).

author : ram swarup