In the name of Allah, The Merciful, The Compassionate
If you accept stoning as a punishment for zina, you are basically questioning the authenticity of the Qur’an and completely unique status as God’s final guide to humanity. To use hadith statements that contradict a clear instruction is to put man over God. To kill a human being on the basis of hadith statements is an expression of lack of humility for God and His creation.
Chapter 24 of the Qur’an, which refers to fornication and adultery, immediately after the initiation form “In the Name of God, The Merciful, The Compassionate,” it is stated: “A chapter which We have sent down and which We have ordained in it have We sent down Clear evidence, in order that ye may receive admonition. The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment.”(24: 1-2).
However, punishment can only take place if four faithful adult persons have testified of the actual act (24:4). In most countries with the Muslim majority population, the 100-lashes punishment has long been changed to imprisonment of varying lengths and rarely occurs in practice.
However, many sectarian Muslims maintain–with reference to the Hadith literature whose use and authenticity has always been discussed–the punishment for a married person’s sexual intercourse with anyone other than his spouse is stoning (rajm) beyond the 100 lashes which the Qur’an prescribes. They believe that the 100 lashes mentioned in the Qur’an apply exclusively to the sexual relations of unmarried people. However, the Qur’an’s instruction applies to married as well as to unmarried.
1) The brutal punishment for adultery, which originates from Hadith literature, contradicts the Qur’anic chapter 24, 100 lashes applicable to both married and unmarried.
2) The Qur’an sets the punishment of zina for a slave to half the punishment prescribed for a free woman (4:25). You can give the half penalty of 100 lashes (i.e., 50 lashes); but you cannot stone a person to half death.
3) Lastly, the Qur’an sets the penalty for any crime if one of the wives of the Prophet might commit to the double of the ordinary punishment (33:30). You can double a penalty of 100 lashes; but one cannot kill one person twice.
Already here, it must be clear to any self-thinking person that if you truly believe in the Qur’an as God’s revealed guidance to humanity, then stoning is not part of Islam. Can you, as a conscious believer, really believe that the Messenger of Allah could have taken the matter in his own hand and ordered death sentences in violation of God’s guidance, the Qur’an?
The Qur’an is its own best interpreter, as its various passages complement and explain each other.
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