Light (Al-Noor)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ This is a Surah which We have sent down and We have made it mandatory, and We have sent down clear Commandments in it so that you may learn lessons. 1 The adulteress and the adulterer: scourge each one of the twain with a hundred stripes. And let not tenderness rake hold of you in regarad to the twain in the law of Allah, if ye have come to believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let witness this torment a band of the believers. 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 and do not bring four witnesses should be punished with eighty lashes, and their testimony should not be accepted afterwards, for they are profligates, 4 except those among them that afterwards repent and mend their ways. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. 5 And as for those who accuse their wives and there are not for them witnesses except themselves, the testimony of one of them shall be four testimonies by Allah: that verily he is of the truth-tellers 6 Then the fifth time he shall declare that Allah's curse be upon him if he be false (in his charge). 7 But it would avert the punishment from the wife, if she bears witness four times (with an oath) By Allah, that (her husband) is telling a lie; 8 and the fifth [time,] that God's curse be upon her if he is telling the truth, 9 Were it not for God's grace and His mercy upon you, [you would have come to grief] and God is wise, acceptor of repentance. 10