Zina

When an unmarried male commits adultery with an unmarried female (they should receive) one hundred lashes and banishment for one year and in case of a married male committing adultery with a married female, they shall receive one hundred lashes and be stoned to death as per the Sunnah.

There are very few recorded examples of the stoning penalty for zinā being implemented legally. Before legal reform was introduced in several countries during the 20th century, the procedural requirements for proving the offense of zinā to the standard necessary to impose the stoning penalty were effectively impossible to meet.

Zina became a more pressing issue in modern times, as Islamist movements and governments employed polemics against public immorality. In recent decades, several countries passed legal reforms that incorporated elements of hudud laws into their legal codes, and many modern Islamists have also disregarded the condition of strict evidence requirements. In Nigeria, local courts have passed several stoning sentences, all of which were overturned on appeal or left unenforced. In Pakistan, the Hudood Ordinances of 1979 subsumed prosecution of rape under the category of zina, making rape extremely difficult to prove and exposing the victims to jail sentences for admitting illicit intercourse forced upon them, although these laws were amended in 2006, and again in 2016. According to human rights organizations, stoning to death for zina has also been carried out in Saudi Arabia. Ordinances like the Hudud Ordinances are not Islamic, in terms of rape and zina. The Deobandi ʿulamāʾ declared these Ordinances as un-Islamic.

Islamic scriptures

Muslim scholars have historically considered zinā a hudud sin, or crime against God. It is mentioned in both Quran and in the Hadiths.

Introduction and definition

The Quran deals with zinaʾ in several places. First is the Qur'anic general rule that commands Muslims not to commit zina:

Do not go near adultery. It is truly a shameful deed and an evil way.

— Surah Al-Isra 17:32

In the Hadiths, the definitions of zina have been described as all the forms of sexual intercourse, penetrative or non-penetrative, outside of marriage. However, sex between a man and his female slave was not defined as extramarital sex; a man having the right to sexual intercourse with his own female slave.

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Apostle as saying: “Allah has decreed for every son of Adam his share of zina, which he will inevitably commit. The zina of the eyes is looking, the zina of the tongue is speaking, one may wish and desire, and the private parts confirm that or deny it.”

— 8:77:609, 33:6421

Adultery and fornication

Quran

Stoning punishment, a form of capital punishment for adultery, is not mentioned in the canonical text of the Quran. Most of the rules related to fornication, adultery and false accusations from a husband to his wife or from members of the community to chaste women can be found in Surah an-Nur (the Light). The surah starts by giving very specific rules about punishment for zina:

As for female and male fornicators, give each of them one hundred lashes, and do not let pity for them make you lenient in ˹enforcing˺ the law of Allah, if you ˹truly˺ believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a number of believers witness their punishment.

— Surah An-Nur 24:2

Those who accuse chaste women ˹of adultery˺ and fail to produce four witnesses, give them eighty lashes ˹each˺. And do not ever accept any testimony from them—for they are indeed the rebellious— except those who repent afterwards and mend their ways, then surely Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

— Surah An-Nur 24:4–5

According to Jonathan A. C. Brown, Surah an-Nisa verse 4:25 prescribes punishment for a female slave guilty of a sexual offense as half of the punishment of a free woman:

But if any of you cannot afford to marry a free believing woman, then ˹let him marry˺ a believing bondwoman possessed by one of you. Allah knows best ˹the state of˺ your faith ˹and theirs˺. You are from one another. So marry them with the permission of their owners, giving them their right of Mehar ( a compulsory gift to bride) in fairness, if they are chaste, neither promiscuous nor having secret affairs. If they commit indecency after marriage, they receive half the punishment of free women. This is for those of you who fear falling into sin. But if you are patient, it is better for you. And Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. – Quran 4:25

Hadith

The public lashing punishment for fornication and adultery are also prescribed in Hadiths, the books most trusted in Islam after Quran, particularly in Kitab Al-Hudud.

'Ubada b. As-Samit reported: Allah's Messenger as saying: Receive teaching from me, receive teaching from me. Allah has ordained a way for those women. When an unmarried male commits adultery with an unmarried female, they should receive one hundred lashes and banishment for one year. And in case of married male committing adultery with a married female, they shall receive one hundred lashes and be stoned to death.

— 17:4191

Ma'iz came to the Prophet and admitted having committed adultery four times in his presence so he ordered him to be stoned to death, but said to Huzzal: If you had covered him with your garment, it would have been better for you.

— 38:4364

Hadith Sahih al Bukhari, another authentic source of sunnah, has several entries which refer to death by stoning. For example,

Narrated 'Aisha: 'Utba bin Abi Waqqas said to his brother Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas, "The son of the slave girl of Zam'a is from me, so take him into your custody." So in the year of Conquest of Mecca, Sa'd took him and said. (This is) my brother's son whom my brother has asked me to take into my custody." 'Abd bin Zam'a got up before him and said, (He is) my brother and the son of the slave girl of my father, and was born on my father's bed." So they both submitted their case before Allah's Apostle. Sa'd said, "O Allah's Apostle! This boy is the son of my brother and he entrusted him to me." 'Abd bin Zam'a said, "This boy is my brother and the son of the slave girl of my father, and was born on the bed of my father." Allah's Apostle said, "The boy is for you, O 'Abd bin Zam'a!" Then Allah's Apostle further said, "The child is for the owner of the bed, and the stone is for the adulterer," He then said to Sauda bint Zam'a, "Veil (screen) yourself before him," when he saw the child's resemblance to 'Utba. The boy did not see her again till he met Allah.

— 9:89:293

Other hadith collections on zina between men and woman include:

• The stoning (Rajm) of a Jewish man and woman for having committed illegal sexual intercourse.
• Abu Hurairah states that the Prophet, in a case of intercourse between a young man and a married woman, sentenced the woman to stoning and the young man to flogging and banishment for a year. (Sahih Muslim 17:4209)

Rape

Rape has been defined as zina al-jabr (forceful illicit sex) in the traditional Islamic texts. Few hadiths have been found regarding rape in the time of Muhammad. The most popular transmitted hadith given below indicates the ordinance of stoning for the rapist but no punishment and no requirement of four eyewitnesses for the rape victim.

Narrated 'Alqamah bin Wa'il Al-Kindi: From his father: "A woman went out during the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) to go to Salat, but she was caught by a man and he had relations with her, so she screamed and he left. Then a man came across her and she said: 'That man has done this and that to me', then she came across a group of Emigrants (Muhajirin) and she said: 'That man did this and that to me.' They went to get the man she thought had relations with her, and they brought him to her. She said: 'Yes, that's him.' So they brought him to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and when he ordered that he be stoned, the man who had relations with her, said: 'O Messenger of Allah, I am the one who had relations with her.' So he said to her: 'Go, for Allah has forgiven you.' Then he said some nice words to the man (who was brought). And he said to the man who had relations with her: 'Stone him.' Then he said: 'He has repented a repentance that, if the inhabitants of Al-Madinah had repented with, it would have been accepted from them.'"

— Jami` at-Tirmidhi, 17:37, 38:4366

The hadiths declare rape of a free or slave woman as zina. However, despite the power imbalance between a master and his slave, making it impossible for a slave to give true consent, sex between a man and his female slave was not defined as rape nor as zina; a man having the right to sexual intercourse with his own female slave.

View of scholars

Malik related to me from Nafi that a slave was in charge of the slaves in the khumus and he forced a slave-girl among those slaves against her will and had intercourse with her. Umar ibn al-Khattab had him flogged and banished him, and he did not flog the slave-girl because the slave had forced her.

— 1:85:81,41 3.15

Malik related to me from Ibn Shihab that gave a judgment that the rapist had to pay the raped woman her bride-price. Yahya said that he heard Malik say, "What is done in our community about the man who rapes a woman, virgin or non-virgin, if she is free, is that he must pay the bride-price of the like of her. If she is a slave, he must pay what he has diminished of her worth. The hadd-punishment in such cases is applied to the rapist, and there is no punishment applied to the raped woman. If the rapist is a slave, that is against his master unless he wishes to surrender him."

— 36 16.14

If a confession or the four witnesses required to prove a hadd crime are not available, but rape can be proved by other means, the rapist is sentenced under the ta'zir system of judicial discretion. According to the eleventh-century Maliki jurist Ibn 'Abd al-Barr:

The scholars are unanimously agreed that the rapist is to be subjected to the hadd punishment if there is clear evidence against him that he deserves the hadd punishment, or if he admits to that. Otherwise, he is to be punished (i.e., if there is no proof that the hadd punishment for zina may be carried out against him because he does not confess, and there are not four witnesses, then the judge may punish him and stipulate a punishment that will deter him and others like him). There is no punishment for the woman if it is true that he forced her and overpowered her, which may be proven by her screaming and shouting for help.

— Al-Istidhkaar, 7/146

Homosexuality

Islamic teachings (in the hadith tradition) presume same-sex attraction, extol abstention and (in the Qur'an) condemn consummation. There are no reports relating to homosexuality in the best known and authentic hadith collections of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, other canonical collections record a number of condemnations of the "act of the people of Lut" (male-to-male anal intercourse). Some Quranic verses are used to propose a prohibition of homosexual activities, including:

And ˹remember˺ when Lot scolded ˹the men of˺ his people, ˹saying,˺ “Do you commit a shameful deed that no man has ever done before? You lust after men instead of women! You are certainly transgressors.”

— Surah Al-A'raf 7:80–81

In another verse, the statement of the prophet Lot has also been pointed out,

Why do you ˹men˺ lust after fellow men, leaving the wives that your Lord has created for you? In fact, you are a transgressing people.”

— Surah Ash-Shu'ara 26:165–166

Some scholars indicate this verse as the prescribed punishment for homosexuality in the Quran:

And the two among you who commit this sin—discipline them. If they repent and mend their ways, relieve them. Surely Allah is ever Accepting of Repentance, Most Merciful.

— Surah An-Nisa 4:16

However, there are different interpretations of the last verse where the Quran refers to as "two among you". Pakistani scholar Javed Ahmed Ghamidi sees it as a reference to premarital sexual relationships between men and women. In his opinion, the preceding Ayat of Sura Nisa deals with prostitutes of the time. He believes these rulings were temporary and were abrogated later when a functioning state was established and society was ready for permanent rulings, which came in Sura Nur, Ayat 2 and 3, prescribing flogging as a punishment for adultery. He does not see stoning as a prescribed punishment, even for married men, and considers the Hadiths quoted supporting that view to be dealing with either rape or prostitution, where the strictest punishment under Islam for spreading "fasad fil ardh", meaning corruption in the land, referring to egregious acts of defiance to the rule of law was carried out.

Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali jurists insist that anal sex between men is a hudud crime punished with death, however Hanafi jurists argue that the act is immoral and forbidden but does not qualify as a hudud violation.

The Hadiths consider homosexuality as zina. For example, Abu Dawud state,

From Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, the Prophet states that: "If a woman comes upon a woman, they are both adulteresses, if a man comes upon a man, then they are both adulterers.”

— Al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Awat: 4157, Al-Bayhaqi, Su‘ab al-Iman: 5075

The discourse on homosexuality in Islam is primarily concerned with activities between men. There are, however, a few hadith mentioning homosexual behavior in women; The jurists are agreed that "there is no hadd punishment for lesbianism, because it is not zina. Rather a ta’zeer punishment must be imposed, because it is a sin..'". Although punishment for lesbianism is rarely mentioned in the histories, al-Tabari records an example of the casual execution of a pair of lesbian slavegirls in the harem of al-Hadi, in a collection of highly critical anecdotes pertaining to that Caliph's actions as ruler. Some jurists viewed sexual intercourse as possible only for an individual who possesses a phallus; hence those definitions of sexual intercourse that rely on the entry of as little as the corona of the phallus into a partner's orifice. Since women do not possess a phallus and cannot have intercourse with one another, they are, in this interpretation, physically incapable of committing zina.

Anal sex

All Sunni Muslim jurists agree that anal sex is haram (prohibited), based on the hadith of Muhammad. In contrast, according to Twelver Shia Muslim jurists, anal sex is considered makruh (strongly disliked) but is permissible with the consent of the wife.

Many scholars point to the story of Lot in the Quran as an example of sodomy being an egregious sin. However, multiple others hold the view that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not specifically due to the sodomy practiced in those towns but as a combination of multiple transgressions. The death by stoning for people of Sodom and Gomorrah is similar to the stoning punishment stipulated for illegal heterosexual sex. There is no punishment for a man who sodomizes a woman because it is not tied to procreation. However, other jurists insist that any act of lust in which the result is the injection of semen into another person constitutes sexual intercourse.

Sodomy often falls under that same category as sex between an unmarried man and woman engaging in sexual acts. Male-male intercourse is referred to as liwat while female-female intercourse is referred to as sihaq. Both are considered reprehensible acts, but there is no consensus on punishment for either. Some jurists define zināʾ exclusively as the act of unlawful vaginal penetration, hence categorizing and punishing anal penetration in different ways. Other jurists included both vaginal and anal penetration within the definition of zināʾ and hence extended the punishment of the one to the other.

Religious discourse has mostly focused on such sexual acts, which are unambiguously condemned. The Quran refers explicitly to male-male sexual relations only in the context of the story of Lot, but labels the Sodomites's actions (universally understood in the later tradition as anal intercourse) an "abomination" (female-female relations are not addressed). Reported pronouncements by Muhammad (hadith) reinforce the interdiction on male-male sodomy, although there are no reports of his ever adjudicating an actual case of such an offence; he is also quoted as condemning cross-gender behaviour for both sexes and banishing them from local places, but it is unclear to what extent this is to be understood as involving sexual relations. Several early caliphs, confronted with cases of sodomy between males, are said to have had both partners executed by a variety of means. While taking such precedents into account, medieval jurists were unable to achieve a consensus on this issue; some legal schools prescribed capital punishment for sodomy, but others opted only for a relatively mild discretionary punishment. There was general agreement, however, that other homosexual acts (including any between females) were lesser offences, subject only to discretionary punishment.

Incest

Hadith forbids incestuous relationship (zinā bi'l-mahārim), sexual intercourse between someone who is seen as your mahram and prescribes execution as punishment.

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: That the Prophet said: "If a man says to another man: 'O you Jew' then beat him twenty times. If he says: 'O you effeminate' then beat him twenty times. And whoever has relations with someone that is a mahram (family member or blood relative) then kill him."

— Jami` at-Tirmidhi, 17:46

It was narrated from Ibn`Abbas that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:“Whoever has intercourse with a Mahram relative, kill him; and whoever has intercourse with an animal, kill him, and kill the animal.”

— Sunan Ibn Majah, 2564

Masturbation

Islamic scripture does not specifically mention masturbation. Like most people before the morals of the Age of Enlightenment, pre-modern Islam faced masturbation mostly with indifference. A few hadiths underline this view. Muhammad is reported to have said that "it is your fluid, or your member, so do whatever you like, as it were." There are a few hadiths demonizing masturbation but these are classified as unreliable.

To prohibit masturbation, scholars (ulama) of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) may have invoked the Qur'anic proclamation (Quran 23:1–6) that Muslims must protect their sexual organs, except from their legal spouses (azwājihim) or what their right hands own. The Mālikīs jurists follow suit and seem to categorically prohibit masturbation. Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī goes as far as to demonize this practise, stating that it was introduced by šayṭān (devil). Imam al-Shafi'i states that male masturbation (istimmā') runs afoul of the Qur'anic proclamation (Quran 23:1–6) that Muslims must protect their sexual organs, except from their legal spouses (azwājihim) or what their right hands own. The Shafi'i school agree with the Mālikīs, and some of them consider masturbation a lesser form of zinā. The founder al-Shafi'i argued that this encourages men to neglect their wives and may cause the termination of family lineage.

The Ḥanafīs have mixed opinions. Most of them are rather critical about, but generally allow for unmarried people and even obligatory if the alternative is illicit sex. Similarly, diverse are opinions among the Ḥanbalīs. Ibn Taimiyya's statement, a proto-Salaf Hanbalite scholar, states that the consensus of early and later jurists (salafan wa-ḫalafan) was to categorically prohibit masturbation, is clearly an overstatement. Due to a lack of concern about masturbation from Quran and hadiths, Ḥanbalīs generally disliked (makrūh), but did not forbid masturbation. However, if one couldn't find a spouse, one would be encouraged to masturbate.

Those who didn't adhere to any of these four major schools are often going into more detail. Ibn Ḥazm explains that "a woman who rubs something against herself (without inserting it) until she climaxes is not guilty of sin; the same is true of a man who masturbates. No scholar, he points out, disagrees that it is perfectly lawful for a person to touch their sex organ (specifying the use of the left hand for men), and since no scriptural text explicitly prohibits masturbation, it must be lawful". However, he adds that it is not appropriate for civilized people to do this.

Bestiality

According to the hadith, bestiality is defined under zina and its punishment is execution of the accused person along with the animal.

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: That the Messenger of Allah said: "Whomever you see having relations with an animal then kill him and kill animal." So it was said to Ibn 'Abbas: "What is the case of the animal?" He said: "I did not hear anything from the Messenger of Allah about this, but I see that the Messenger of Allah disliked eating its meat or using it, due to the fact that such a (heinous) thing has been done with that animal."

— Jami` at-Tirmidhi, 17:38

It was narrated from Ibn`Abbas that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:“Whoever has intercourse with a Mahram relative, kill him; and whoever has intercourse with an animal, kill him, and kill the animal.”

— Sunan Ibn Majah, 2564