Light (Al-Noor)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
۞ A Surah [is this] which We have bestowed from on high, and which We have laid down in plain terms; and in it have We bestowed from on high messages which are clear [in themselves,] so that you might keep [them] in mind. 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 And those who launch a charge against chaste women, and produce not four witnesses (to support their allegations),- flog them with eighty stripes; and reject their evidence ever after: for such men are wicked transgressors;- 4 Except for those who repent thereafter and reform, for indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. 5 As for those who accuse their wives but have no witnesses except themselves; let the testimony of one of them be four testimonies, (swearing) by Allah that he is of those who speak the truth; 6 And the fifth (oath) (should be) that they solemnly invoke the curse of Allah on themselves if they tell a 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 Her fifth oath being that the curse of God be on her if her husband should be speaking the truth. 9 (This would not have been possible) if the grace and benevolence of God were not upon you; but God is compassionate and wise. 10