Light (Al-Noor)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ This is a chapter which We have sent down and decreed its commands, and in which We have sent down clear verses, in order that you may ponder. 1 The fornicatress and the fornicator -- scourge each one of them a hundred stripes, and in the matter of God's religion let no tenderness for them seize you if you believe in God and the Last Day; and let a party of the believers witness their chastisement. 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 Those who defame chaste women, but cannot produce four witnesses, shall be given eighty lashes. Do not accept their testimony ever after, for they are transgressors, 4 Unless they repent thereafter and mend (their conduct); for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. 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 a fifth time, that the curse of God shall be upon him, if he should be of the liars. 7 But the punishment will be averted from her if she swears four times that he is of the liars, 8 And the fifth (time) that the wrath of Allah be on her if he is one of the truthful. 9 Had it not been for God's favors and mercy upon you (your life would have been in chaos). God accepts repentance and He is All-wise. 10