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What does the |
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Stoning Adulterers |
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Question: Are adulterers to be put to death under Islam? |
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Summary Answer: Absolutely. There were several times in Muhammad's life when he
proscribed that people be put to death when they had committed no crime other
than "illegal" sexual intercourse. |
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The Qur'an: Stoning is not prescribed. (See Additional Notes). |
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Bukhari (6:60:79) - Two people guilty of "illegal intercourse" are brought to Muhammad, who commands that they both be stoned. Apparently their act was out of love, however, since the verse records the man as trying to shield the woman from the stones.
Bukhari (83:37) - Adultery is one of three justifications for killing a person, according to Muhammad.
Muslim (17:4196) - A married man confesses that he has adultery (four times, as required). 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 was dragged back.
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).
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.
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The Qur'an uses the phrase "fornicators or adulterers" in Qur'an 24:2 and prescribes 100 lashes as the punishment (verse 4:15 suggests house arrest for "lewdness"). This almost certainly refers to unmarried sex only, since the next verse implies that offenders live to marry, which would be in contradiction to Muhammad's well-documented practice of putting adulterers to death. Further clarification is offered in Muslim (17:4029) in which an unmarried man is ordered flogged, while his married partner in crime is stoned.
There is a strong tradition that Aisha recalled a 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 wandered into the house and ate the leaf (along with others) before it could be collected and merged into the other hodgepodge of writings that became the Qur'an.
Islamic law (Sharia) requires that adulterers be put to death, since it was the example set by Muhammad. In practice, usually only women are executed, since they bear the burden of sexual responsibility (in a male-dominated society). Another reason is because reporting a rape means a confession of adultery under Sharia law, if four male witnesses can not 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. In this case, they could not be more 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, as Bukhari (6:60:79) makes clear). 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 do find the practice distasteful, there is simply no arguing that killing grown adults over consensual sex is firmly rooted in Islamic theology. In fact, according to this recent fatwa, merely denying that is appropriate to stone married adulterers in the modern age is a sign of apostasy.
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