STONING TO DEATH

Arabic rajm ( رجم‎ ). In Muslim law, the punishment of lapidation is only inflicted for adultery. (Under the Jewish law idolaters and bearers of false witne were also stoned.) It is founded, not upon the Qurʾān, where the only punishment awarded is one hundred stripes ( Sūrah xxiv. 2 ), but upon the Traditions ( Mishkāt , book xv. ch. 1), where Muḥammad is related to have said, “Verily God hath ordained for a man or woman not married one hundred lashes and expulsion from their town one year, and for a man or woman having been married one hundred lashes and stoning.” ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq says the hundred lashes, in addition to the stoning, is abrogated by the expre example of the Prophet, who ordered stoning only; for ʿAbdu ʾllāh ibn ʿUmar relates the following tradition:— “A Jew came to the Prophet and said, ‘A man and woman of ours have committed adultery.’ And the Prophet said, ‘What do you meet with in the Book of Moses in the matter of stoning?’ The Jew said, ‘We do not find stoning in the Bible, but we disgrace adulterers and whip them.’ Then ʿAbdu ʾllāh ibn Salām, who was a learned man of the Jews, and had embraced Islām, said, ‘You lie, O Jewish tribe! verily the order for stoning is in the Book of Moses.’ Then the book was brought, and opened; and a Jew put his hand upon the revelation for stoning, and read the one above and below it; and ʿAbdu ʾllāh said, ‘Lift up your hand.’ And he did so, and behold the revelation for stoning was produced in the book, and the Jews said, ‘ʿAbdu ʾllāh spoke true, O Muḥammad! the stoning revelation is in the Book of Moses.’ Then the Prophet ordered both the man and woman to be stoned.” ( Mishkāt , book xv. ch. i.) The author of the Hidāyah (vol. ii. p. 9) gives the following instructions as to the correct way of carrying out the sentence:— “It is nece ary, when a whoremonger is to be stoned to death, that he should be carried to some barren place void of houses or cultivation, and it is requisite that the stoning be executed—first by the witne es, and after them by the Imām or Qāẓī, and after those by the rest of the bystanders, because it is so recorded from ʿAlī, and also because in the circumstance of the execution being begun by the witne es there is a precaution, since a person may be very bold in delivering his evidence against a criminal, but afterwards, when directed himself to commence the infliction of that punishment which is a consequence of it, may from compunction retract his testimony; thus, causing the witne es to begin the punishment may be a means of entirely preventing it. Ash-Shāfiʿī has said that the witne es beginning the punishment is not a requisite, in a case of lapidation, any more than in a case of scourging. To this our doctors reply that reasoning upon a case of lapidation from a case of scourging is supposing an analogy between things which are e entially different, because all persons are not acquainted with the proper method of inflicting flagellation, and hence, if a witne thus ignorant were to attempt, it might prove fatal to the sufferer, and he would die where death is not his due, contrary to a case of lapidation, as that is of a destructive nature, and what every person is equally capable of executing, wherefore if the witne es shrink back from the commencement of lapidation the punishment drops, because their reluctance argues their retraction. “In the same manner punishment is remitted when the witne es happen to die, or to disappear, as in this case the condition, namely, the commencement of it by the witne es, is defeated. This is when the whoredom is established upon the testimony of witne es: but when it is established upon the confe ion of the offender, it is then requisite that the lapidation be executed, first by the Imām or the Qāẓī, and after them by the rest of the multitude, because it is so recorded from ʿAlī. Moreover, the Prophet threw a small stone like a bean at G͟hamdīyah who had confe ed whoredom. When a woman is to be stoned, a hole or excavation should be dug to receive her, as deep as her waist, because the Prophet ordered such a hole to be dug for G͟hamdīyah before mentioned, and ʿAlī also ordered a hole to be dug for Shuraha Hamdiānī. It is, however, immaterial whether a hole be dug or not, because the Prophet did not i ue any particular ordinance respecting this, and the nakedne of a woman is sufficiently covered by her garments; but yet it is laudable to dig a hole for her, as decency is thus most effectually preserved. There is no manner of nece ity to dig a hole for a man, because the prophet did not do so in the case of Māʿiz. And observe, it is not lawful to bind a person in order to execute punishment upon him in this case, unle it appears that it cannot otherwise be inflicted. “The corpse of a person executed by lapidation for whoredom is entitled to the usual ablutions, and to all other funeral ceremonies, because of the declaration of the Prophet with respect to Māʿiz. ‘Do by the body as ye do by those of other believers’; and also, because the offender thus put to death is slain in vindication of the laws of God, wherefore ablution is not refused, as in the case of one put to death by a sentence of retaliation; moreover the Prophet allowed the prayers for the dead to G͟hamdīyah, after lapidation.” ( Hidāyah , book ii. p. 9.) This punishment of lapidation for adultery has become almost obsolete in modern times; even in Buk͟hārah, where the institutes of Muḥammad are supposed to be most strictly observed, it is not inflicted. SUBḤAH ( سبحة‎ ). The rosary of ninety-nine beads. [ ROSARY .] SUBḤAN ( سبحان‎ ). [ TASBIH .] SUBḤĀNA ʾLLĀHI ( سبحان الله‎ ). “Holine be to God!” An ejaculation which is called the Tasbīḥ . It occurs in the liturgical prayer, and is used as an ejaculation of surprise or fear. [ TASBIH .] ṢŪFAH ( صوفة‎ ). Banū Ṣūfah . An ancient tribe of Arabia. The descendants of Tābik͟ha and Elyās . (Muir, vol. i. p. cxcix.) ṢŪFĪ ( صوفى‎ ), more correctly صوفىّ‎ Ṣūfīy . (The Persian form of the plural being صوفيان‎ Ṣūfīyān .) A man of the people called صوفيه‎ Ṣūfīyah , who profe the mystic principles of تصوف‎ Taṣawwuf . There is considerable discu ion as to the origin of this word. It is said to be derived (1) from the Arabic Ṣūf , “wool,” on account of the woollen dre worn by Eastern ascetics; (2) or from the Arabic Ṣafū , “purity,” with reference to the effort to attain to metaphysical purity (which is scarcely probable); (3) or from the Greek σοφία , “wisdom”; (4) or, according to the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hāt , it is derived from the Ṣūfah , the name of a tribe of Arabs who in the “time of ignorance,” separated themselves from the world, and engaged themselves exclusively in the service of the Makkah Temple. It might at first sight appear almost an impo ibility for mysticism to engraft itself upon the legal system of the Qurʾān, and the Aḥādīs̤ , with the detailed ritual and cold formality which are so strikingly exemplified in Islām; but it would appear that from the very days of Muḥammad, there have been always those who, whilst they called themselves Muslims, set aside the literal meaning of the words of Muḥammad for a supposed mystic or spiritual interpretation, and it is generally admitted by Ṣūfīs that one of the great founders of their system, as found in Islām, was the adopted son and son-in-law of the Prophet, ʿAlī ibn Abī T̤ālib. The Ṣūfīs themselves admit that their religious system has always existed in the world, prior to the mi ion of Muḥammad, and the unprejudiced student of their system will observe that Taṣawwuf , or Ṣūfīism, is but a Muslim adaptation of the Vedānta school of Hindū philosophers, and which also we find in the writings of the old academics of Greece, and Sir William Jones thought Plato learned from the sages of the East. The Ṣūfīs are divided into innumerable sects, which find expre ion in the numerous religious orders of Darweshes or Faqīrs [ FAQIR ]; but although they differ in name and in some of their customs, as dre , meditations and recitations, they are all agreed in their principal tenets, particularly those which inculcate the absolute nece ity of blind submi ion to a murshid , or inspired guide. It is generally admitted that, quite irrespective of minor sects, the Ṣūfīs are divided into those who claim to be only the Ilhāmīyah , or inspired of God, and those who a ert that they are Ittiḥādīyah , or unionist with God. The following is a succinct account of the doctrines of the Ṣūfīs:— 1. God only exists. He is in all things, and all things are in Him. 2. All visible and invisible beings are an emanation from Him, and are not really distinct from Him. 3. Religions are matters of indifference: they however serve as leading to realities. Some for this purpose are more advantageous than others, among which is al-Islām, of which Ṣūfīism is the true philosophy. 4. There does not really exist any difference between good and evil, for all is reduced to Unity, and God is the real Author of the acts of mankind. 5. It is God who fixes the will of man: man therefore is not free in his actions. 6. The soul existed before the body, and is confined within the latter as in a cage. Death, therefore, should be the object of the wishes of the Ṣūfī, for it is then that he returns to the bosom of Divinity. 7. It is by this metempsychosis that souls which have not fulfilled their destination here below are purified and become worthy of reunion with God. 8. Without the grace of God, which the Ṣūfīs call Fayaẓānu ʾllāh , or Faẓlu ʾllāh , no one can attain to this spiritual union, but this, they a ert, can be obtained by fervently asking for it. 9. The principal occupation of the Ṣūfī, whilst in the body, is meditation on the waḥdānīyah , or Unity of God, the remembrance of God’s names [ ZIKR ], and the progre ive advancement in the T̤arīqah , or journey of life, so as to attain unification with God.