ADULTERY

Arabic zināʾ ( زناء‎ ). The term zināʾ includes both adultery and fornication, but there is a difference in the punishment for these offences. [ FORNICATION .] Adultery is established before a Qāẓi, either by proof or confe ion. To establish it upon proof, four witne es are required. (Qurʾān, Sūrah iv. 1 .) When witne es come forward, it is nece ary that they should be examined particularly concerning the nature of the offence. When the witne es shall have borne testimony completely, declaring that “they have seen the parties in the very act of carnal conjunction,” the Qāẓi pa es sentence. A confe ion of adultery must be made by the person who has committed the sin, at four different times, although, according to the Imām ash-Shāfiʿī, one confe ion is sufficient. Some of the doctors hold that if a person retract his confe ion, his retraction must be credited, and he must be forthwith released. At the commencement of Muḥammad’s mi ion, women found guilty of adultery and fornication were punished by being literally immured— Sūratu ʾn-nisā (iv.) 19, “Shut them up within their houses till death release them, or God make some way for them.” This, however, was cancelled, and lapidation was substituted as the punishment for adultery, and 100 stripes and one year’s banishment for fornication. When an adulterer is to be stoned to death, he should be carried to some barren place, and the lapidation should be executed, first by the witne es, then by the Qāẓi, and afterwards by the by-standers. When a woman is stoned, a hole or excavation should be dug to receive her, as deep as her waist, because Muḥammad ordered such a hole to be dug for G͟handia. It is lawful for a husband to slay his wife and her paramour, if he shall find them in the very act. If a supreme ruler, such as a K͟halīfah, commit adultery, he is not subject to such punishment. The state of marriage which subjects a whoremonger to lapidation, requires that he be free ( i.e . not a slave), a Muslim, and one who has consummated a lawful marriage. It will be seen that Muḥammadan law is almost identical with the divine law of the Jews with regard to adultery ( Deut. xxiii. 22 , Lev. xix. 20 ); but the Mosaic penalty applied as well to the betrothed as to the married woman.