A last-minute effort to stop stoning of Iranian woman

Stoning to death as a punishment for adultery is NO WHERE spoken of in the Holy Quran. At one instance stoning was done to a Jew- that was based on the Jewish Holy Book. The Jews referred a case on
fornication to Muhammad-the Messenger of God (pbuh). He asked them what punishment the Torah prescribed in case of adultery. The Jews tried first to conceal the fact that it was stoning to death, but the Jewish scholar living then ( Abd-Allah ibn Salam) admitted the existence of such a punishment and the guilty persons were dealt with as given in Torah ( Bukhari 61;25).

The New Testament narrates a similar incident during the time of Jesus Christ(puh)

I quote from John Chapter 8 Verses 3,4 and 5.

Verse 3. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him (Jesus) a
woman caught in adultery. And when they set her in the midst.
Verse 4. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in
adultery, in the VERY ACT.
Verse 5. “Now Moses, in the law commanded us that such SHOULD BE
STONED. But what do you say?” JOHN 8: 3-5

So you can see that stoning was the punishment for adultery in the
Jewish Law and that in the case of Jewish offenders, this punishment
was resorted to by the Holy Prophet Muhammad( pbuh) when he was the ruler of Medinah.

Was the same punishment given to Muslims in Medinah at any time? Yes. It is true that the same punishment was given in certain cases when the offenders were Muslims. BUT CERTAINLY THIS WAS BEFORE THE
REVELATION OF THE QURANIC VERSE 24:2.

“ As for the adulteress and the adulterer-flog each of them with a
hundred stripes, and let not compassion with them keep you from this
law of God, if you believe in God and the Last Day; and let a group of the believers witness their chastisement” 24:2

Verse 24:2 speaks of MILD flogging, aiming at disgracing the offenders rather than torturing. The number of those to witness has been deliberately left unspecified, thus indicating that while the mild punishment must be given publicly, it need not be made a ‘public spectacle’.

The Arabic word for flogging is JALD( means: skin). In other words,
the punishment by flogging should be felt only by the skin. It aims
more at disgracing the culprits rather than torturing them. Hence the Holy Quran positively excludes death or stoning to death. In fact, anyone who does deep research and objective interpretation of the Quranic Verse 4: 25, can see that, all possibilities of death as a punishment for adultery are precluded.

Verse 4.25 gives the law on punishing for immoral conduct
(fornication) Of believing maidens ( the community rightfully possess) They shall be liable to HALF the penalty to which free married women are liable. The weaker social status of a slave woman makes her, obviously more accessible to sexual temptation than a free married woman is presumed to be.

Now the important point here is to understand that the number of 100
flogging can be halved but death or stoning to death can never be
halved. So it is very clear that the Holy Quran speaks about flogging not death as a punishment for adultery.

Now the question arises: Why did the prophet punish the Muslim
adulterers making use of the Laws of Moses?

The answer is, it was the Prophet’s practice to follow the earlier
revealed law until he received an amended and a definite law on a
specific wrong doing. People well versed in the evolution of Islamic
law knew that drinking of alcohol was not prohibited in the beginning. People were not allowed to come to pray being drunk, but drinking itself was not forbidden until much later. The same thing was true about personal money lending and charging interest on personal loan as it was practised by Abbas (raa) The revelation about the prohibition on interest on personal lending was received just a short while before the death of the Prophet.

The interpretation of the Quranic laws have been continuously
developing and evolving and scholars have been elaborating and making changes to the earlier interpretations.

Quran is the one and the only miracle of Islam. The adoring beauty of the Quran is that it throws a different light or a new light according to the time. No scholar’s interpretation on the Quran is the last word or final. Taqi ad Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyah ( 8th century’s greatest scholar)or Razi or Abu Muslim, might have given an interpretation on a particular Verse, but a great scholar like Shah Waliyullah ( 18th century) might have differed from that interpretation.

And now in the 21st century, Sheikh Qaradawi may find earlier
interpretations highly objectionable on several counts and give a
totally different meaning to the same Verse based on the particular
circumstances of the society now. The beauty of the Quran is that
there is absolutely no change in the original revealed words but
interpretations keep changing according to the environment,
circumstances, facts and lives of people. People who are going to live in the 25th century may find new light in the Quran that the present day scholars have never dreamt of.

Moreover, it is also for the Shariyah judge to decide the sort of
punishment to be given to suit the circumstances. Great latitude is
allowed to the judge in the choice of punishments.

So what we need is stronger Iman and deeper research in order to
understand the immense wisdom behind the Qu’ranic laws. We should
not jump to hasty conclusions. If all the trees are turned into pens
and all the seas are turned into ink, the pens and the ink will be
exhausted but God’s words will never be exhausted.

Modern man thinks he is too intelligent and hence foolishly questions even some of the most accepted Quranic ethics probably because he wants to compete with the fast changing decadent Western culture and try to appease and apologize. There is nothing to apologize in the laws of One True Almighty God. God knew Best.