Stoning In Islam

- Research suggests stoning for adultery in Islam is based on Hadith, not explicitly in the Quran, and is applied under strict conditions, making it rare in practice.

This is the cruelest punishment that can be melted out to any humans. Imagine this : Group of people gather to throw stones at a person. The stones hurt rhe person all over his/her body. It hits the person all over the body and blood starts to pour out from the person's body. The stoning continues with the person getting more hurt every time. More and more blood pours out as stones tears up the person's skin. The crowd is not stopping their actions and continue to hurl stones. The person getting stones have to go through the pain of each stone until he or she is dead. Yet death is not so fast, it takes some time for the person to die from the stones. It's unthinkable this is even thought to be a punishment. It is gross unjustified for such a trivial crime to be punished in the most painful way imaginable. Only psychopaths lacking empathy can even come close to think this is something human being should be a part of. 

Background

The Hudud punishments in Islam are fixed penalties for specific crimes considered offenses against God, including stoning for adultery by married persons. This practice, known as Rajm, has been of objection from many parties from human rights to Muslims themselves due to its severity and the conditions required for its application.

The very favt that this is considered to be a law by Islamic law is reflective of the barbarious 7th century desert nature of the origins of the religion. 

Conditions and Application

Stoning requires the individual to be a married adult Muslim of sound mind who intentionally commits adultery. Proof can be established by four witnesses testifying to seeing the act of penetration or a confession made four times, which can be retracted. Pregnancy alone isn't sufficient proof, with possibilities like rape or miraculous events considered, and the Hanafi school allows for pregnancy up to five years. 

Modern Context and Debates

In modern times, stoning is enforced in very few states, such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Iran, but actual implementations are rare, often replaced by flogging or other penalties. There are calls for moratoriums, like by Tariq Ramadan in 2005, and debates continue, with some scholars arguing it's not obligatory due to current global and political contexts. Human rights organizations criticize it as cruel, while some Islamic scholars and movements, like Quranists, reject it for lacking Quranic basis

Theological Basis and Scriptural References

The foundation of Islamic law lies in the Quran and the Hadith, with Hudud punishments being fixed penalties for crimes against God. The Quran, in Surah An-Nur (24:2), prescribes 100 lashes for both men and women guilty of adultery or fornication: "The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication - flog each of them with a hundred stripes." However, stoning for adultery, specifically for married individuals (muhsan), is not explicitly mentioned in the Quran but is derived from the Hadith. Various hadiths, such as those in Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and Sunan Abu Dawood, describe instances where the Prophet Muhammad ordered stoning for married adulterers, establishing it as a Sunnah practice. For example, a hadith narrates a man confessing to adultery four times before the Prophet, who then ordered him stoned, as seen in Sahih Bukhari.

The theological basis is rooted in the Sunna, with consensus among scholars on its validity, including the Muʿtazila, though groups like the Kharijis and some modern scholars, such as Muhammad Abu Zahra (d. 1974), have doubted its reliability, as reported by Mustafa Zarqa’ and Yusuf al-Qaradawi (see Muḥammad Abū Zahra, *Fatāwā*, ed. Muḥammad ʿUthmān Bashīr, Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 2006, 673). There is also a theory of a removed Quranic verse on stoning (naskh al-tilāwa), accepted by most pre-modern scholars like Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī (d. 458/1066), but denied by ʿAbdallāh al-Ghumārī (d. 1993) as rationally impossible (see ʿAbdallāh b. al-Ṣiddīq al-Ghumārī, *Dhawq al-ḥalāwa bi-bayān imtināʿ naskh al-tilāwa*, 2nd ed., Cairo: Maktabat al-Qāhira, 2006, 12, 14). This debate highlights the complexity, with stoning seen as a violation of the "rights of God" (ḥuqūq Allāh), balanced by God's mercy (Qur'an 6:54, 7:156).

Conditions for Application

Stoning is not applied automatically and requires certain conditions:

- The individual must be married (muhsan), meaning previously married, adult, free, and Muslim, of sound mind, aware of the prohibition, and intentionally engaging in the act.

- Proof can be established by four witnesses testifying to seeing the act of penetration, described in hadiths as "his penis entering her vagina like an eyeliner applier entering its container," or by a confession made four times, which can be retracted at any point to avoid punishment.

- Pregnancy alone is not sufficient proof; ambiguities like rape, miraculous transport, or a "sleeping embryo" (Hanafi school allows up to five years for pregnancy) are considered to avoid applying Hudud. Historical examples include late 1500s India, where a pregnant woman claimed weekly visits from her deceased husband, accepted by Hanafi jurists, and the Ottoman Empire's Hanafi practice of avoiding Hudud for prostitutes due to structural similarity to marriage.

Historical and Modern Application

It is legally recognized in few Muslim-majority countries

| Country       | Details                                                                                     |

|---------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| Saudi Arabia  | Between 1981-1992: 4 stonings, 45 amputations for theft; 1982-83: 2 hands cut off out of 4,925 theft convictions, 0 stonings out of 659 sexual crime convictions. |

| Nigeria       | Few amputations for theft, at least 2 death sentences for adultery, all released due to ambiguities (see http://www.sharia-in-africa.net/pages/publications/sharia-implementation-in-northern-nigeria.php). |

| Iran          | Stoning not carried out, amputation rare (fingertips, not hand, see Hassan Rezaei, “Iran,” in The [Oxford] Encyclopedia of Islam and Law, Oxford Islamic Studies Online, 05-Dec-2016). |

| Sudan         | Since 1991, mainly flogging for intoxication (see Olaf A. Köndgen, “Sudan,” in The [Oxford] Encyclopedia of Islam and Law, Oxford Islamic Studies Online, 05-Dec-2016). |

Non-state actors like the Taliban and ISIS have carried out stonings, often in tribal or rebel areas.

Ethical Debates and Modern Interpretations

The practice of stoning has sparked significant ethical debates:

Human Rights Concerns

Organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemn stoning as execution by torture, highlighting its cruelty and inhumanity (see https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/11/afghanistan-reject-stoning-flogging-amputation-and-other-taliban-era-punishments/, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/05/31/sudan-ban-death-stoning).

-Scholarly Disagreement

Quranists reject stoning, arguing no Quranic basis (see http://www.asma-lamrabet.com/articles/is-stoning-the-punishment-for-adultery-in-islam/). Javed Ahmad Ghamidi suggests it might be for habitual fornication as "mischief in the land" (Quran 5:33-34), not widely accepted (see http://www.renaissance.com.pk/septfeart2y2.html).

Calls for Moratorium

Tariq Ramadan called for a moratorium in 2005, criticized by Western and conservative Muslim scholars (see http://tariqramadan.com/an-international-call-for-moratorium-on-corporal-punishment-stoning-and-the-death-penalty-in-the-islamic-world/).

Muslim scholars like Shaykh Mustafa al-Zarqa (d. 1999) and Abdallah Bin Bayyah argue against revival due to political/social environments making ambiguities systematic, seen as an "age of crisis and necessity" (see al-Madkhal al-fiqhī al-ʿāmm, 3rd ed., 2 vols., Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 1433/2012, 1:283-4; Tanbīh al-marājiʿ ʿalā ta’ṣīl fiqh al-wāqiʿ, UAE: Muntadā Taʿzīz al-Silm fī al-mujtamaʿāt al-Muslima, 2014, 83-5). They maintain Hudud are valid in theory but implementation is discretionary, not necessary for being Muslim.

Conclusion

Stoning for adultery in Islam is rooted in Hadith. Its modern application is controversial, and often criticized, with calls for moratoriums reflecting ethical and human rights concerns. 

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