Light (Al-Noor)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ This is a chapter which We have revealed to you and made obligatory for you to follow its guidance. We have revealed clear verses in it so that perhaps you may take heed. 1 The woman and the man guilty of illegal sexual intercourse, flog each of them with a hundred stripes. Let not pity withhold you in their case, in a punishment prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a party of the believers witness their punishment. (This punishment is for unmarried persons guilty of the above crime but if married persons commit it, the punishment is to stone them to death, according to Allah's Law). 2 The adulterer marries not but an adulteress or a Mushrikah and the adulteress none marries her except an adulterer or a Muskrik [and that means that the man who agrees to marry (have a sexual relation with) a Mushrikah (female polytheist, pagan or idolatress) or a prostitute, then surely he is either an adulterer, or a Mushrik (polytheist, pagan or idolater, etc.) And the woman who agrees to marry (have a sexual relation with) a Mushrik (polytheist, pagan or idolater) or an adulterer, then she is either a prostitute or a Mushrikah (female polytheist, pagan, or idolatress, etc.)]. Such a thing is forbidden to the believers (of Islamic Monotheism). 3 Those who accuse chaste women, and cannot produce four witnesses, you shall lash them with eighty lashes. And never accept their testimony, for they are evildoers, 4 Except those who repent after this and reform themselves; so indeed Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful. 5 And as for those who accuse their own wives [of adultery,] but have no witnesses except themselves, let each of these [accusers] call God four times to witness that he is indeed telling the truth, 6 and the fifth time, that God's curse may be upon him if he is telling a lie. 7 But [as for the wife, all] chastisement shall be averted from her by her calling God four times to witness that he is indeed telling a lie, 8 and, a fifth time that God's wrath will be upon her if he is telling the truth. 9 Were it not for God's grace and His mercy upon you, [you would have come to grief] and God is wise, acceptor of repentance. 10