STONING ADULTERERS: WHOSE SANCTION?
Stoning is one of the most brutal ways of execution devised by
man. Whoever is condemned to death by stoning, will find himself buried neck
deep and a crowd of people pestles him with stones until he can breathe no
more. It is certainly an unimaginable way to die. Besides being one of the most
brutal it is certainly one of the oldest methods. Could this method of killing
comes from God’s sanction? Scriptural evidence in the Qur’an, emphatically had
shown it is carried out not by men of God rather those who oppose him.
Beginning with the first prophetic community, the people of Noah God told us in
the Qur’an
Q26:116 “They said “Unless you refrain O Noah, you will be stoned”
Man of God (Noah) is threatened to stop preaching or be executed
by stoning. Furthermore
Q19:46 “He said “have you forsaken my gods, O Abraham? Unless you
stop I will stone you” Another man of God being threatened by
his own father. Then
Q11:91 “They said “O Shuaib, we don’t comprehend many of the
things you are telling us, and we see that you are powerless among us. If it
weren’t for your tribe we would have stoned you”
Likewise the 3rd Century fleeing Christian youth
fro persecution
Q18:20 “If they discover you, they will stone you,
or force you to revert to their religion, then you will never succeed” An d
finally the two messengers sent to a community as narrated in
Q36:18 “They said “we consider you bad omens. Unless you refrain
we will surely stone you”
There it is from the horse’s mouth, I mean it was all the men of
evil that threatened the men of God with stoning. Though in the Torah, the
passage in Leviticus says
LEV 20:10 “The man who commits adultery with another mans wife, he
who commits adultery with his neighbors wife, the adulterer and the adulteress,
shall surely be put to death”
Also in Deutronomy 22:21 "then they shall bring out the young
woman to the door of her father's house and the men of her city shall stone her
to death with stones because she has done disgraceful thing in Israel, to play
the harlot in her father's house"
But Jesus in the book of Matthew confirmed to us that
MATTHEWS 23:37 “O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , the one who kills the
prophet and stones those who are sent to her” Thus it is
always the work of those who opposes God that stones people. That is also why
when some Jews brought to Jesus a woman accused of adultery, what did he do?
JOHN 8:4-11 “They said to him “Teacher, this woman was caught in
adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law commanded us that such should
be stoned. But what do you say? This they said testing him, that
they might have something to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on
with his finger as though he did not hear” So when they continued asking him,
he raised himself up and said to them “He who is without sin among you, let him
throw a stone at first” and again stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then
those who heard it being convicted by their conscience went out one by one,
beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone with the
woman standing in the midst”
This great teacher in one simple sentence had killed several birds
with one stone: The woman was saved from a cruel and uncalled for execution,
his action had shown the whole world that stoning was never sanctioned by Moses
in the Judaic law, or he must have allowed them to carry it out or else tell
them the law is abrogated but he did neither. And Christendom was saved from
the barbaric stoning culture.
Coming to Islam, how did stoning sneaked into our system? There is
not a single verse in the whole of Qur’an that called for stoning any Muslim,
adulterer or otherwise. Here is what God said in chapter
Q24:1-2 “A chapter that we sent down, and decreed as law. We have
revealed in it clear revelations, that you may take heed. The adulteress and
the adulterer, you shall whip each of them a hundred lashes”
God began with admonishing us that we should not be heedless of
his law stated therein, which is precise and clear: Flog hundred times anyone
caught in adultery, period. But before the punishment is carried there must be
Q24:4 “Those who accused chaste women of adultery, then fail to
produce four witness, you shall whip them Eighty lashes and don’t accept any
testimony from them ever”
Therefore, 4 witnesses must testify before conviction. In Islamic
jurisprudence, four legal issues (Divorce, Inheritance, Transaction and
Adultery cases) warrants the testimony of witnesses. In divorce it is two
likewise in writing wills of estate and three (one man two women) in
transactions. It is only in adultery that four people must bear witness before
a judge pass the judgment of lashes. God, being all-knowing, knows there will
come a time when the Muslim community will, out of nowhere, Institute stoning
in their statutes. To guard against this he gave us two verses to checkmate
what he sanctioned.
Q4:25 “Once they are freed through marriage, if they commits
adultery, their (slave woman) punishment shall be HALF of that
for the free women”
When a married slave woman is found guilty of adultery by four
testifiers, then she will be meted half the punishment of a free woman. The
punishment God sanctioned in Q24:2 is hundred lashes and half of that should be
fifty lashes. But if the punishment, as alleged, for a free woman is stoning,
can anybody please tell us what is the half of stoning (Death)? I bet even
Galen cant do that. To buttress the point and make his argument impregnable
from all sides, the Almighty decreed in
Q33:30 “O Wives of the prophet, if any of you commits adultery,
the punishment will be DOUBLED to her and that is easy for
God”
The prophet wives were patterns of decorum with the highest morals
(They were even addressed as mothers of believers). So if (of course none of
them were in the least guilty of any misconduct) they were to be guilty, their
punishment would be doubled that of ordinary women. God here is emphasizing the
punishment of hundred lashes not of stoning to death as we can have the double
of hundred lashes (200) but nothing like double-death.
God and his prophet had never sanctioned stoning, God has asked
Muhammad to say in the Qur’an
Q6:114-116 “Say “shall I seek other than God as a source of law,
when he has revealed to you this book fully detailed…the word of your Lord is
complete in truth and justice. No one can change his word. He is the hearer and
know all. Were you to follow the common run of those on earth, they will lead
you away from the way of God (i.e. Qur’an) they follow nothing but conjecture,
they do nothing but lie”
As Muslims, our source of law should be the Qur’an and in the
above verse the prophet is telling us he can never contradict the Qur’an and
even him cannot change what God has decreed, besides isn’t his job is to
practice and propagate the Qur’an? Scholars always attributed to Umar (the 2nd Caliph)
as the one who claimed they had read about the verse in the Qur’an instituting
stoning in a Muwatta Hadith no 8 book 41 reported by Ubaidullah Bn Utba Bn
Masud that Ibn Abbas said “ I heard Umar Bn Khattab saying “ There
is stoning punishment in the Quran for an adulterer, married man or woman if
there is evidence of pregnancy or confession”
This is laughable, as Umar was at one time the most powerful man
on earth as he ruled the Islamic empire for 12 years. He was a no-nonsense man,
could he have turned a blind eye to the plagiarization of the Qur’an? If he
did, what about other eminent and courageous companions like the 2nd, 3rd and
4th Caliphs? Or is it a grand connivance by the whole
companions to expunge such a verse? Were they not the ones that finally
compiled the Qur’an? And how could Umar alone reported this while none of the
sahaba’s did? This is what God is alluding in the above verse Q6:116 “They
follow nothing but conjecture, they do nothing but lie” God has further
captured the mentality in
Q31:20-21 “…Yet there are some people who argue about God without
KNOWLEDGE and without GUIDANCE and without an enlightening SCRIPTURE. When they
are told to follow the revelation that God has sent down (Qur’an) they say “No,
we follow only what we found our fathers doing”
There are indeed hadiths reported where the prophet orders stoning
but it was against Jews as it was reported in Muslim’s Kitab Hudud where
in Book 17, hadith 4211 narrated “Abdullah b. 'Umar reported that a Jew and a Jewess
were brought to Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) who had committed
adultery. Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) came to the Jews and said:
What do you find in Torah for one who commits adultery? They said: We darken
their faces and make them ride on the donkey with their faces turned to the
opposite direction (and their backs touching each other), and then they are
taken round (the city). He said: Bring Torah if you are truthful. They brought
it and recited it until when they came to the verse pertaining to stoning, the
person who was reading placed his hand on the verse pertaining to stoning, and
read (only that which was) between his hands and what was subsequent to that.
Abdullah b. Salim who was at that time with the Messenger of Allah (may peace
be upon him) said: Command him (the reciter) to lift his hand. He lifted it and
there was, underneath that, the verse pertaining to stoning. Allah's Messenger
(may peace be upon him) pronounced judgment about both of them and they were
stoned. Abdullah b. 'Umar said: I was one of those who stoned them, and I saw
him (the Jew) protecting her (the Jewess) with his body.
God has commanded the prophet whenever the people of the book
approached him for judgment
Q5:42 “…If they do come to you, either judge between them or
decline”
The prerogative was given to him to either judge them or decline,
but if he chose to judge them he was admonished
Q5:49 “And this (He commands) judge thou between them by what
Allah has revealed and follow not their vain desires and beware lest they
beguiled thee from any of that which Allah has sent down to thee”
The above
hadith about stoning the Jewish adulterers explained the verses fully as they
tried to beguile the prophet in what they actually believed to be revealed in the
torah until they were exposed. Muslim world today insist, without checking,
that we must also follow what our foregone Ulema’s had sanctioned, that is
we cannot differ with the Maliki’s, Shafi’i’s, Hanbali’s and Hanafi’s.
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Q42:10 “Whatever it
be wherein you differ, the judgment (thereof) is with God”
Meaning the Qur’an
should be our arbiter, unless where it is silent, then we can differ as much as
we like. As long as the Quran gave out its verdict there is no way a hadith can
replace that judgment. Failure to follow an unequivocal injunction of the
Qur’an means
Q32:22 “Who is more
evil than one who is reminded of these revelations of his lord (the Qur’an),
then insists upon disregarding them”
Practically, the
insistence of upholding what our forebears left behind without checking and
improving upon it, even in our mundane life was responsible for our
retrogression in all facet of life. Do we follow what God reveals using our
intellect or do we follow conjecture? God admonishes us
Q57:16 “Is it not
time for those who believed (the Muslims) to open up their hearts for God’s
message (Qur’an) and the truth that it revealed therein? They should not be
like the followers of the previous scriptures whose hearts became hardened with
time and, consequently, many of them turned rebellious transgressors”
God is warning us
that it is high time we should be abiding by the Qur’anic teachings and be not
like those turned away from God because of the long span of time that made them
forget their scriptures. We are lucky to have received the most direct and easiest
scripture in history. God says
Q54:22 “We have made the Qur’an easy to learn, does any of
you wish to learn?
It is evident the Qur’an is the only book one could memorize
in its entirety. I have written books but I cannot bring off-head even a
chapter of my own book, but a child of seven can memorize the whole Quran. In
the above verse God is asking me, you and everyone who is willing to read and
understand the Qur’an that it is easy to understand. Don’t let anybody fools
you that it is only the Ulema’s that know Arabic that can only understand. If
you don’t know Arabic there must be a translation in the language you can read,
try it and see whether God is right in saying he has made it easy for you to
understand.
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