If any of your women commit indecency, call in four witnesses from among yourselves against them, if they testify, confine them to their houses till death overtakes them or till Allah makes for them a way. 15 If two among you commit it punish them both. If they repent and make amends, leave them alone. Allah is the Relenter, the Merciful. 16 With Allah is the repentance of those alone who do an evil foolishly and thereafter repent speedily, surely it is they unto whom Allah shall relent. And Allah is Knowing, Wise. 17 And of no effect is the repentance of those who continue to do evil deeds until death faces one of them and he says: "Now I repent;" nor of those who die while they are disbelievers. For them We have prepared a painful torment. 18 Believers, it is unlawful for you to inherit women forcefully, neither bar them, in order that you go off with part of what you have given them, except when they commit a clear indecency. Live with them honorably. If you hate them, it may be that you hate something which Allah has set in it much good. 19 If you want to divorce a woman so that you can marry another, do not take back the dowry which you had paid even if what you paid was a large amount of gold. To do this is a slanderous act and a manifest sin. 20 How can ye take it (back) after one of you hath gone in unto the other, and they have taken a strong pledge from you? 21 And do not wed the women your fathers had wed. What happened in the past is now past: It was lewd and abhorrent, and only the way of evil. 22