The Stoning Myth

By: - Ahmed Mansour

The Stoning Punishment Contradicts Qur’an Legislation and Islam:

1. It is not in Qur’an to stone the adulterer. However, the concept of stoning and its derivatives in Qur’an came in the form of infidels’ threatening of believers and prophets (Hud 91, Miriam 46, Dukhan 20, Yassine 18, Kahf 20, Shua’ra 116). The stoning punishment was found in the contemporary Torah. The Moslems were affected by that and adopted this punishment for married adulterers. This is pure forging as far as Islam is concerned.
2. The punishment of adultery in Qur’an revealed as follows: The adulterers, in case they are caught, shall be flogged 100 lashes in front of crowd of people. The verse Al-Noor, The Light, started with this unique epilogue:” A verse, we revealed and enforced. We revealed in it clear and confirmed verses, so you may realize them”. Then Allah, almighty, immediately said:” The adulterers, male and female, shall be flogged one hundred lashes. Never feel mercy with them in the cause of Allah religion if you believe in Allah and the hereafter. Also, a flock of believers shall witness their punishment”.

It is very difficult to prove the case of adultery. Also, it is difficult to have a unanimous agreement on the occurrence of such act that results flogging. However, it is easy to label a woman that she has bad reputation. Observations might be increased on her bad reputation. Hence, there must be an appropriate punishment for it after proving such bad behavior through four witnesses despite not being caught. This punishment is not flogging. It is by preventing her from mixing with people till she dies or repents and marries. However, this is a negative punishment. God, almighty, says: “And those of your women commit the sin, have four witnesses to prove it. If they testified against them, hold those women in their houses till they die or God may find alternative path from them”. Nissa’a 15. Once she declares her repentance, she will be set free or marry. She will get rid of the characteristic of committing sin.

Also, details were mentioned in Qur’an in the case of an owned maid who commits the sin. If she commits the sin under the authority of her owner (master) and she was forced to do so, no punishment will be performed, as she has no choice. God, Almighty, says: “ Do not force your maids to perform prostitution if they decided to protect themselves so as to pursue the pleasures of this life. And whoever was forced to do so, God is mostly forgiving and compassionate” Al-Noor 33. If the owned maid gets married and frees herself from her master’s authority and commits adultery, her punishment shall be fifty lashes, i.e. half of the punishment of married free women if they commit the same sin. God says: “ If they get married, and commit the sin, their punishment shall be half of those free married women”. Nissa’a 25.
In all cases, the adulterous woman, that is the one who does not repent, is not allowed to marry a believer. This is an additional punishment. God, Almighty, says: “The male adulterer marries only a female adulterer or an infidel and vice versa. This marriage is not allowed for the believers”. Al-Noor 3.

Even Qur’an quotes a very remote example to individuals that might commit adultery and their exempted punishment. This remote case was the Prophet wives. In this case the punishment is two hundred (200) lashes. That’s to say, double of the punishment for free married women. In same token, they have double of the reward for good deeds of the others. God, Almighty, says: “ The women of the Prophet, if any of you commit a proven sin, she shall be punished as twice as the others, and that is surely easy for God to do. And those of you who fear God and do good deeds, We shall reward her as twice as the others, and surely we established for them an honorable reward”. Al-Ahzab 30,31. Since the punishment here has been doubled, the occurrence of the crime has to be proven, as the Quranic phrase “Whoever of you commit proven sin”. Here it is specific for the Prophet women and it is of a great importance and needs to be proven.

The Quranic legislation describes the adultery punishments as a torture or suffering. This means that the villain should stay alive. In other words, no place here fro stoning as it means death. Qur’an, when it mentioned the adultery punishment, did not specify the marital status of the sinner. It came as generic and the punishment was generic also. It says one hundred lashes (100) flogging. So flogging is the suffering.

In case of the owned maid that commits adultery after her marriage, her punishment shall be fifty lashes (50) as God, Almighty, said in Nissa’a 25. So, it was described as suffering. So, those who advocate the stoning of the married person are ignoring God’s saying of half the punishment. Is it possible to halve the stoning? Is there “half” death?
In case of the Prophet women, the Quranic legislation says:” If any one of you, the women of the Prophet, commits a proven sin, the punishment shall be as doubled”. It described the flogging as double the suffering. Is it possible to “double” the stoning? Does the person die twice? Can stoning twice kill the person?

If the man failed to prove that his wife committed adultery and failed to provide witnesses, he can swear before the judge by God four times that he is right. He also, swears for the fifth time that the wrath of God be upon him if he was a liar. In reciprocation, the wife can defend herself by swearing four times by God she is innocent. The fifth would be the wrath of God is upon her if her husband was truthful. This is called “curse” situation. This was revealed in Al-Noor 6-9. What’s important here that God described this punishment as “suffering” or “tormenting”. So, the punishment of the married adulterer is flogging and not stoning. Also, Qur’an legislations deal with an alive adulterer after executing the punishment. Qur’an prohibits the marriage from an adulterer who is addictive to adultery. Al-Noor verse 3 explains that fact. These legislations might not be there if the punishment was death. It also, applies for additional punishment on the divorced adulterer that prohibits her from leaving the house or re-marrying till she pays back some of her dowry.

Moreover, God, almighty, threatens the adulterers to multiply the punishment and stay in it for eternity in the Day of Resurrection if they died insisting on committing this sin. Of course, those who repent shall be exempted. Those God shall replace their sins with rewards. God said in this aspect: “ For those, the tormenting shall be multiplied in the Day of Resurrection and they will stay humbled in it for eternity. Those who repent and do good deeds, their sins shall be replaced with rewards. God is truly the most forgiving and compassionate”. Al-Forqan, 69-70. if the fate of the fate of the adulterer is stoning and hence death, there would not be any chance for repentance and doing good deeds to replace his/her sins. Also, the characterization of adulterer would be dropped to be replaced by the good repentant. God, Almighty, says: “Do not kill the soul that God made it sacred except with righteousness.” Ana’m 151, Isra’a 33. Also, in Forqan 68, God, Almighty, says: “And those who do not believe in any god but Allah, and do not kill the sacred soul but in righteousness and do not commit adultery, whoever does this will gain sins.” It is forbidden to kill the soul except in punishment and this is the Quranic right. The most sacred thing is the human soul and its right in life. In the same token, the biggest crime is killing this soul that created by God. The absolute crime is to devise a legislation that kills this pure soul and then attribute this to God, Almighty, and his Messenger.

The Lie of Stoning in Narrations (Hadith):

1. Although the stoning punishment was invented in Abbasid era, it was never unanimously approved. The contemporary Sunnah scholars admit that Al-Mu’tazala and Rejectionist (Khawarej) rejected the stoning. (Sayyed Sabiq, Sunnah Scholarship, 2/347, the Encyclopedia of Scholarship based on the four dogmas, 5/69 written by Abdel-Rahman Al-Jazzeeri).
2. The oldest narrations about stoning were mentioned in Nowata of Malik in a narration by Mohammad Ibn Hassan Sheibani. The narration started as: (Malik told us that Yahya Ibn Saeed heard Saeed Ibn Mossayyab said: When Omar Ibn Al-Khattab came from Mina …etc). That means the original narrator of this anecdote was Saeed Ibn Mossayyab. He claimed that Omar delivered an oration claiming the existence of the stoning verse in Qur’an, but it was omitted. However, Ibn Mossayyab was two years old when Omar was assassinated. How can a crawling baby telling stories about Omar. So, it is impossible for Ibn Mossayyab to be the narrator. Also, it is impossible for Omar to say something like that. It means that Omar accused the Qur’an of being forged and this is blasphemy. God, Almighty, said: “We revealed this Qur’an, and we are protecting it.” Al-Hijr 9. So, as far as the subject, this narration is false. In this narration, they attribute a verse to stoning that says:” The senile man and women shall be stoned if they commit adultery”. It is very well known the concept of senile does not indicate the marital status. One can reach this stage and stays single. Mohammad Ibn Hassan Sheibani felt this shortcoming in the meaning and realized by commenting on another narration about the Jewish adulterers (Narration no. 694):( Any Moslem man committed adultery with a woman and was married to a free Moslem woman and copulated with her, and then he shall be stoned. This is the “married” man. If he did not copulate with her or she was A Jewish or Christian, then he is not married and no stoning. He shall be flogged with hundred lashes. This is the saying of Abu Haneefah and the majority of scholars). Sheibani (a student to Abu Haneefah and one of the two scholars in the Hanafis) put a specific definition and a correction to the narration of stoning related to Omar that included adulterous “senile” people. In his definition, “senile” was no longer the criterion for stoning the married adulterer, but also, the Moslem who married a free Moslem woman. However, the one who married a Jew or a Christian, his marriage is not complete and no punishment for his adultery.
3. There is another anecdote in Mowata no. 692. This anecdote is completely false under all measures. Malik narrated this anecdote from Ibn Shehab (Al-Zuhry) who narrated this by himself. Al-Zuhry lived towards the end of the Umayyad era and was one of the followers who never met the Prophet, peace be upon him, or lived his time. Even though we read the following in Mowata: (Malik told us that Ibn Shehab told us that a man admitted committing adultery during the reign of the Prophet. The man testified against himself and was ordered to be stoned. Ibn Shehab said: For this, one can incriminate himself by self-confession.
4. The narrations were iterated after Malik. Shafi’e, Bukhari and Moslem wrote them. Sometimes these narrations claim that certain verses in Qur’an did exist and omitted. Bukhari, died yr 256 A.H., narrated from Omar Ibn Khattab, who died 200 years before him, about verses that were omitted from Qur’an and Omar declared them late. Some of these narrations claim that the stoning rite was stemmed from the monkey’s society before Islam. Bukhari narrated in his anecdote no. 3560:” Naeem Ibn Hmmad told us about Hasheem about Amr Ibn Meimoun saying: I saw before Islam a bunch of monkeys stoning an adulterous monkey, and I did the same with them. It seems that the monkeys’ society before Islam was ahead in applying the stoning. Anybody asked about this monkey’s marital status? Did the narrator discuss this issue with the Clergy of the monkeys and how to prove the occurrence of adultery? Did the monkeys use four witnesses? All of these narrations contradicting themselves.
5. Contradiction in narrations:
Contradiction is the main characteristic of Narrations. Two kinds of contradictory characters appear in narrations: partial contradiction in the details of the same story, and major contradiction among different stories. As an example of the latter, Bukhari produced a narration about a man came to the Prophet and admitted committing adultery. The prophet avoided him. The prayer time came and the man witnessed the prayer with the Prophet. He reiterated his confession to the Prophet and demanded to be punished. The prophet said to him: did you not pray with us? The man said: yes. The Prophet said: God forgave your sin. This means that prayer forgives the sins and negates the stoning. This is a stark contradiction with other narrations that are damped with the stoned victims’ blood.
While Bukhari, Shafi’e and Malik narrations emphasized that the punishment for the married adulterer is only stoning, we found that Moslem narrated repeated stories emphasizing in them that the Prophet said: The punishment of the single is 100 lashes and one year exile. The married punishment is 100 lashes then stoning. The danger in these narrations that it made the punishment for the married adulterer was 100 lashes before being killed stoning. This is another contradiction with other narrations.
These stories and anecdotes were written in the books of narrations to become major source of legislation for Moslems. Especially, when the scholars and the storytellers celebrated them and everyone re-iterated these narrations as “real” and “rites”. This was emphasized by the application of these narrations that sent many men and women victims to death based on legislation God never authorized.

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