Light (Al-Noor)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ This is a chapter which We have sent down and appointed; and in it We have sent down clear verses in order that you will remember. 1 The woman and the man guilty of illegal sexual intercourse, flog each of them with a hundred stripes. Let not pity withhold you in their case, in a punishment prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a party of the believers witness their punishment. (This punishment is for unmarried persons guilty of the above crime but if married persons commit it, the punishment is to stone them to death, according to Allah's Law). 2 The adulterer marries not but an adulteress or a Mushrikah and the adulteress none marries her except an adulterer or a Muskrik [and that means that the man who agrees to marry (have a sexual relation with) a Mushrikah (female polytheist, pagan or idolatress) or a prostitute, then surely he is either an adulterer, or a Mushrik (polytheist, pagan or idolater, etc.) And the woman who agrees to marry (have a sexual relation with) a Mushrik (polytheist, pagan or idolater) or an adulterer, then she is either a prostitute or a Mushrikah (female polytheist, pagan, or idolatress, etc.)]. Such a thing is forbidden to the believers (of Islamic Monotheism). 3 And those who accuse clean women and then bring not four eyewitnesses, scourge them with eighty stripes and accept not their testimony forever. And these! they are the transgressors 4 Except those who repent thereafter and do righteous deeds, (for such) verily, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. 5 And for those who accuse their wives, but have no witnesses except themselves, let the testimony of one of them be four testimonies (i.e. testifies four times) by Allah that he is one of those who speak the truth. 6 And the fifth [oath will be] that the curse of Allah be upon him if he should be among the liars. 7 It shall avert from her the chastisement if she testify by God four times that he is of the liars, 8 and, a fifth time that God's wrath will be upon her if he is telling the truth. 9 AND WERE it not for God's favour upon you, [O man,] and His grace, and that God is a wise acceptor of repentance...! 10