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 which We have ordained; and therein We have sent down revelations manifest, that haply ye may be admonished. 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 as for those who accuse chaste women [of adultery,] and then are unable to produce four witnesses [in support of their accusation,] flog them with eighty stripes and ever after refuse to accept from them any testimony - since it is they, they that are truly depraved! 4 excepting [from this interdict] only those who afterwards repent and made amends: for, behold, God is much forgiving, a dispenser of grace. 5 And for those who launch a charge against their spouses, and have (in support) no evidence but their own,- their solitary evidence (can be received) if they bear witness four times (with an oath) by Allah that they are solemnly telling the truth; 6 And yet a fifth, invoking the curse of Allah on him if he is of those who lie. 7 The wife shall receive no punishment, if she bears witness four times in the name of God that her husband has lied 8 On the fifth time she should say, "Let the curse of God be upon me if what he says is true." 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