Islam, Adultery and Stoning

Stoning and Adultery Does Islam prescribe the death penalty for consensual sex?  The religion that allows a man to keep sex slaves also requires the execution of consenting adults. There were several times in Muhammad's life when he ordered that people be put to death when they had committed no crime other than "illegal" sexual intercourse.  The only unmarried sex explicitly allowed in Islam is between a Muslim man and his slaves. Quran Stoning is not prescribed in the current version of the Quran.  According to Muhammad's companions, a verse that did exist at one time ordering that adulterers be stoned, but it was forgotten. (See Additional Notes). Hadith and Sira Sahih Bukhari (6:60:79)  (alt link) - Two people guilty of illegal intercourse are brought to Muhammad, who orders them both stoned to death.  Apparently their act was out of love, since the verse records the man as trying to shield the woman from the stones.     Sahih Bukhari (83:37) - Adultery is one of three justifications for killing a person, according to Muhammad.     Sahih Muslim (17:4192) - This hadith clarifies the different penalties for adultery (when the subjects are married), and fornication (when they are not): "in case of married (persons) there is (a punishment) of one hundred lashes and then stoning (to death). And in case of unmarried persons, (the punishment) is one hundred lashes and exile for one year" (See also 17:4191)     Sahih Muslim (17:4196) - A married man confesses to adultery.  Muhammad orders him planted in the ground and pelted with stones.  According to the passage, the first several stones caused such pain that he tried to escape and had to be dragged back.     Sahih Muslim (17:4206) - A woman who became pregnant confesses to Muhammad that she is guilty of adultery.  Muhammad allows her to have the child, then has her stoned. The description is graphic: "Khalid b Walid came forward with a stone which he flung at her head and there spurted blood on the face of Khalid and so he abused her."     Sahih Muslim (17:4209) - A woman confesses adultery and is stoned to death on Muhammad's order.     Ibn Ishaq (970) - "The adulterer must be stoned."  These words were a part of Muhammad's farewell address to his people on the occasion of his final pilgrimage to Mecca.     Islamic Law - "The stone shall not be so big so as to kill the person by one or two strikes, neither shall it be so small that it cannot be called a stone"  The victim is intended to suffer.  Notes The Quran uses the phrase "fornicators or adulterers" in verse 24:2 and prescribes 100 lashes as punishment (verse 4:15 suggests house arrest for "lewdness").  This almost certainly refers to unmarried sex, since it makes little sense for fornication and adultery to be prescribed the same punishment when they are different offenses.  It would also contradict the many examples from the Hadith in which Muhammad put adulterers to death.  In fact, Muslim (17:4209) records a case in which an unmarried man is flogged on the prophet of Islam's order, while his married partner in crime is stoned.   According to Umar (Muhammad's companion and Islam's second caliph) "[Allah] sent down the Book (Quran) upon him (Muhamad), and the verse of stoning was included in what was sent down to him."  Umar went on to insist that "Stoning is a duty laid down in Allah's Book for married men and women who commit adultery when proof is established, or it there is pregnancy, or a confession." (Muslim 17:4194)   In other words, there was a verse in the original Quran narration that prescribed the stoning of adulterers, but it was left out of the compiling process in the years following Muhammad's death.  Umar's insistence on the stoning verse is recorded in other volumes that comprise the most reliable collection of Hadith, including Sahih Bukhari 8:817:  "I am afraid that after a long time has passed, somebody will say, 'By Allah, we do not find the Verse of the Rajam in Allah's Book,' and thus they will go astray by leaving an obligation which Allah has revealed. And the punishment of the Rajam is to be inflicted to any married person (male & female), who commits illegal sexual intercourse."  (Rajam refers to stoning).   According to a strong tradition (found in Sunan ibn Majah, Book of Nikah, Hadith no. 1934), Aisha also recalled the verse that prescribed the death penalty for adulterers.  It was written on a palm leaf that was in her home following Muhammad's death.  Unfortunately, a goat or sheep wandered into the house and ate the leaf (along with others) before it could be collected and merged into the hodgepodge of writings that became the Quran.   Islamic law (Sharia) requires that adulterers be put to death, since it was the example set by Muhammad.  Verses from the sahih (authentic) hadith let us know that the caliphs following Muhammad carried on the tradition of stoning (al-Tirmidhi 1431, Sunan Ibn Majah 20:2553, Sahih Bukhari 82:803).    In practice, women are executed far more often than men, since they are presumed to bear the burden of sexual responsibility (in Islam's male-dominated outlook) and are, perhaps, more likely to confess their indiscretion.  Rape victims are sometimes convicted if they speak out.  Reporting a rape can mean a confession of adultery under Sharia law if four male witnesses cannot be found to confirm the victim's claim.   Unable to get around the fact that stoning adulterers is very much a part of Islam, apologists typically travel the familiar path of claiming that Christianity is no different.  They are wrong.  Not only is the Old Testament rule of stoning anyone explicitly done away with by the example of Jesus (see John 8:1-11, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone") but the episode itself is proof that Christianity is not under the same law as Islam.     While the teachings and example of Jesus stand between Christians and Old Testament law, Muhammad skipped straight back to the harshest of rules (which even the Jews of his day were reluctant to enforce so literally - see Bukhari 6:60:79).  As with so much else - from forgiveness to waging war - the contrasting personal example set by Jesus and Muhammad with regard to killing adulterers could hardly be more different.   While many Muslims today find the practice distasteful, there is simply no arguing against the fact that killing grown adults for consensual sex is firmly rooted in Islamic theology.  In fact, according to a recent fatwa, merely denying that adultery is appropriate grouds for stoning adulterers is a sign of apostasy. One strategy of the apologists is to claim that stoning was not practiced as much during the middle period between the "time of Muhammad" and the last century.  This is true, but meaningless.  Muslims are told to imitate the example of Muhammad and the "rightly-guided" Companions, not people who lived several centuries later.  Numerous examples of stoning adulterers under Islamic law persist, from the Islamist frontier ofSomalia to the modern state of Iran.  In 2010, the Taliban planted a couple in the ground and brutally pelted them with stones (the man had to be finished off with three gunshots) only a few days after they flogged a pregnant woman 200 times and then shot her in the head.  In "condemning" the killings, the "moderate" president of Afghanistan would only say that it was wrong because it were not preceded by a trial. A prominent leader of CAIR, the Council on Islamic-American Relations, openly advocates stoning as prescribed by the Sharia.  More candid than many of his peers, Imam Saraj Wahhaj has said,  "If Allah says 100 strikes, 100 strikes it is. If Allah says cut off their hand, you cut off their hand. If Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet Muhammad, then you stone them to death, because it’s the obedience of Allah and his messenger" (source)   Likewise, a leading theologian in Iran defended a recent stoning sentence simply by remindinghis audience that "Democracy, freedom, and human rights have no place in Islam."   See also: Stoning (from WikiIslam)

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Short Introduction The Quran Online Quran, Hadith and Tafsir Database  Arabic and Phonetic Quran (Multilingual) Material Sources for the Quran Hate Speech: What the Quran Says about You Verses of Violence About the Quran Problems with Textual Integrity Contradictions in the Quran Incompleteness and Incoherence What the Quran Says about the Bible 10 Facts about the Quran (Video) Allah's Curious Interest  in Muhammad's Sex Life An Unchanged Quran? The Word Count "Miracles" Science The Quran and Science Terrorism Suicide Attacks (Martyrdom) Commands to Holy War Killing to Avoid Hell In the Name of Allah Loyalty to a Non-Muslim Government The Religion of Peace Website (List of Attacks)

Human Rights Slavery Freedom of Expression Democracy Freedom of Conscience (Apostasy) Freedom of Belief (Extortion and the Jizya) Forced Conversion to Islam Homosexual Rights Torture Women's Rights Veils Women Worth Less than Men Proving Rape Wife-Beating Divorce - A Man's Prerogative Divorce and Remarriage Men in Charge of Women Polygamy Moral Issues Adultery and Punishment Prostitution (Temporary Marriage) Friendship with Christians and Jews Lying (Deception) Stealing Charity and Disaster Relief Love in the Quran? Forgiveness What Would Muhammad Do? (a Moral Checklist)

Estimated Chronology of the Quran Suras from Mecca 96, 68, 73, 74, 111, 81, 87, 92, 89, 93, 94, 103, 100, 108, 102, 107, 109, 105,113,114,112,53,80,97,91,85,95, 106,101,75, 104,77,50,90,86,54,38,7,72,36,25, 35, 19,20, 56,26,27, 28, 17, 10, 11, 12, 15, 6, 37, 31, 34, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45,  46, 51, 88, 18, 16, 71, 14, 21, 23, 32, 52, 67, 69, 70, 78, 79, 82, 84, 83, 29 Suras from Medina 2, 8, 3, 33, 60, 4, 99, 57, 47, 13, 55, 76, 65, 98, 59, 110, 24, 22, 63, 58, 49, 66, 61, 62, 64, 48, 9, 5