Light (Al-Noor)
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful
۞ WE HAVE REVEALED this Surah and made it obligatory as We have sent down clear injunctions in it that you may be warned. 1 The adulteress and adulterer should be flogged a hundred lashes each, and no pity for them should deter you from the law of God, if you believe in God and the Last Day; and the punishment should be witnessed by a body of believers. 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 As for those persons who charge chaste women with false accusations but do not produce four witnesses, flog them with eighty stripes and never accept their evidence afterwards, for they themselves are transgressors, 4 Save those who afterward repent and make amends. (For such) lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. 5 And for those who accuse their wives, but have no witnesses except themselves, let the testimony of one of them be four testimonies (i.e. testifies four times) by Allah that he is one of those who speak the truth. 6 And the fifth (testimony) (should be) the invoking of the Curse of Allah on him if he be of those who tell a lie (against her). 7 The spouse will be acquitted of the punishment if she challenges his testimony by saying four times, "God is my witness that he is a liar". 8 and on the fifth time the Wrath of Allah shall be upon her if he is of the truthful. 9 And if not for the favor of Allah upon you and His mercy... and because Allah is Accepting of repentance and Wise. 10