Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:15
Those who commit unlawful sexual intercourse of your women - bring against them four [witnesses] from among you. And if they testify, confine the guilty women to houses until death takes them or Allah ordains for them [another] way.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The statement concerning the interpretation of His word: wa-allātī yaʾtīna al-fāḥishata min nisāʾikum fa-stashhidū ʿalayhinna arbaʿatan minkum fa-in shahidū fa-amsikūhunna fī al-buyūti ḥattā yatawaffāhunna al-mawtu aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan (15)
(And those of your women who commit the abomination: call against them four witnesses from among you; and if they testify, then confine them in the houses until death takes them away, or until Allah appoints for them a way) (4:15).
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His word, exalted be His praise, "wa-allātī yaʾtīna al-fāḥishata" (and those who commit the abomination) He means: and the women who betake themselves to fornication (zinā), that is to say: who commit fornication — "min nisāʾikum" (from among your women), and they are married, having husbands, or unmarried, having no husbands — "fa-stashhidū ʿalayhinna arbaʿatan minkum" (call against them four witnesses from among you), He says: call against them, regarding the abomination they have committed, four men from among your men, that is to say: from the Muslims — "fa-in shahidū" (and if they testify) against them — "fa-amsikūhunna fī al-buyūti" (then confine them in the houses), He says: then shut them up in the houses — "ḥattā yatawaffāhunna al-mawtu" (until death takes them away), He says: until they die — "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan" (or until Allah appoints for them a way), He means: or until Allah appoints for them a way out and a path to deliverance from the abomination they have committed.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the scholars of interpretation have spoken.
Mention of who said that:
8795 - Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī Muḥammad ibn Yazīd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: "wa-allātī yaʾtīna al-fāḥishata min nisāʾikum fa-stashhidū ʿalayhinna arbaʿatan minkum fa-in shahidū fa-amsikūhunna fī al-buyūti", He commanded that they be shut up in the houses until they die — "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan", he said: that is the prescribed punishment (al-ḥadd).
8796 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: "wa-allātī yaʾtīna al-fāḥishata min nisāʾikum", he said: fornication (zinā). It was commanded that they be shut up when four witnesses testified against them, until they die — "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan", and the way (al-sabīl) is the prescribed punishment.
8797 - Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "wa-allātī yaʾtīna al-fāḥishata min nisāʾikum" up to "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan": when the woman committed fornication, she was confined in the house until she died. Then Allah, blessed and exalted is He, revealed after this: al-zāniyatu wa-al-zānī fa-jlidū kulla wāḥidin minhumā miʾata jaldatin [Surah al-Nūr: 2] (the fornicatress and the fornicator: flog each of them with a hundred lashes). And if the two of them were married (muḥṣan), they were stoned. This is their way which Allah appointed for them.
8798 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan", Allah has thus appointed for them [a way], and that is the flogging and the stoning.
8799 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to me, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: "wa-allātī yaʾtīna al-fāḥishata", up to: "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan": this was before the prescribed punishments (al-ḥudūd), and both were tormented with words together, and the woman in addition with confinement. Then Allah appointed for them a way. The way for the one who was married was a hundred lashes and then stoning with stones, and the way for the one who was not married was a hundred lashes and banishment for a year.
8800 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ and ʿAbdallāh ibn Kathīr said: "the abomination" (al-fāḥisha) is fornication (zinā), and "the way" (al-sabīl) is the prescribed punishment: the stoning and the flogging.
8801 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "wa-allātī yaʾtīna al-fāḥishata min nisāʾikum fa-stashhidū ʿalayhinna arbaʿatan minkum" up to: "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan": these are those who are married and wedded (uḥṣinna). When the woman committed fornication, she was confined in the house, and her husband took her bridal gift (mahr) and it was his. That is His word: yā ayyuhā alladhīna āmanū lā yaḥillu lakum an tarithū al-nisāʾa karhan wa-lā taʿḍulūhunna li-tadhhabū bi-baʿḍi mā ātaytumūhunna illā an yaʾtīna bi-fāḥishatin mubayyinatin — fornication (zinā) — wa-ʿāshirūhunna bi-l-maʿrūf [Surah al-Nisāʾ: 19] (O you who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit the women against their will, and do not hinder them so as to take away a part of what you have given them, unless they commit a manifest abomination; and consort with them in a fitting manner), until the prescribed punishments came and abrogated (naskha) this, whereupon she was flogged and stoned, and her bridal gift became an inheritance. And "the way" (al-sabīl) is the flogging.
8802 - It was related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim say concerning His word: "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan", he said: the prescribed punishment; the prescribed punishment abrogated this verse.
8803 - Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī related to us, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Khuṣayf, on the authority of Mujāhid: "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan", he said: a hundred lashes, for the man who does it and the woman who does it.
8804 - Al-Rifāʿī related to us, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, he said: the flogging.
8805 - Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʿādh ibn Hishām related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, on the authority of Ḥiṭṭān ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Raqāshī, on the authority of ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit, that the Prophet ﷺ, when the revelation descended upon him, would bow his head and his companions would bow their heads. When it was lifted from him, he raised his head and said: Allah has appointed for them a way: the non-virgin (al-thayyib) with the non-virgin, and the virgin (al-bikr) with the virgin. As for the non-virgin, she is flogged and then stoned, and as for the virgin, she is flogged and then banished.
8806 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, on the authority of Ḥiṭṭān ibn ʿAbdallāh, on the authority of ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit, he said: the Prophet of Allah ﷺ said: "Take from me: Allah has appointed for them a way: the non-virgin with the non-virgin is flogged with a hundred lashes and stoned with stones, and the virgin a hundred lashes and banishment for a year."
8807 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, on the authority of Ḥiṭṭān ibn ʿAbdallāh, the brother of the Banū Raqāsh, on the authority of ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when the revelation descended upon him, was burdened by it and his face changed color. One day Allah sent down [a revelation] upon him and he endured that. When it was lifted from him, he said: "Take from me: Allah has appointed for them a way: the non-virgin with the non-virgin, a hundred lashes and then stoning with stones, and the virgin with the virgin, a hundred lashes and then banishment for a year."
8808 - Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "wa-allātī yaʾtīna al-fāḥishata min nisāʾikum fa-stashhidū ʿalayhinna arbaʿatan minkum fa-in shahidū fa-amsikūhunna fī al-buyūti ḥattā yatawaffāhunna al-mawtu aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan", he said: He says: do not marry them off until death takes them away, and He did not remove them from Islam. Then this was abrogated, and the way was instituted by His appointing for them a way. He said: He appointed for them the way that, when she committed fornication while she was married, she was stoned and excluded, and He appointed for the virgin the way of a hundred lashes.
8809 - Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related to me, saying: Yazīd informed us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk concerning His word: "ḥattā yatawaffāhunna al-mawtu aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan", he said: the flogging and the stoning.
8810 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, on the authority of Ḥiṭṭān ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Raqāshī, on the authority of ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Take from me: Allah has appointed for them a way: the non-virgin with the non-virgin, and the virgin with the virgin; the non-virgin is flogged and stoned, and the virgin is flogged and banished."
8811 - Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Masʿūdī related to me, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim al-Baṣrī, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, on the authority of ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit, he said: we were sitting with the Prophet ﷺ when his face turned red — and he used to do that when the revelation descended upon him — and he was overcome by something like a swoon on account of the heaviness he experienced from it. When he came to again, he said: "Take from me: Allah has appointed for them a way: the two virgins are flogged and banished for a year, and the two non-virgins are flogged and stoned."
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the most correct of the statements in the interpretation of His word "aw yajʿala Allāhu lahunna sabīlan" is the statement of him who said: the way which Allah, exalted be His praise, appointed for the two married non-virgins is stoning with stones, and for the two virgins a hundred lashes and banishment for a year — because of the soundness of the report concerning the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that he stoned and did not flog, and because of the agreement of the authoritative proof (al-ḥujja), in what it has transmitted and passed down as agreed upon, wherein no error, mistake, or falsehood is possible, and because of the soundness of the report concerning him that he imposed upon the two virgins a hundred lashes and banishment for a year. For in what is soundly reported from him, namely that he omitted the flogging in the case of whoever among the fornicators was stoned in his time, there lies a clear indication of the weakness of the report which was related on the authority of al-Ḥasan, on the authority of Ḥiṭṭān, on the authority of ʿUbāda, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, that he said: the way for the married non-virgin is the flogging and the stoning.
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And it has been mentioned that this verse in the recitation of ʿAbdallāh reads: (wa-allātī yaʾtīna bi-l-fāḥishati min nisāʾikum) (with the bāʾ: and those who come with the abomination). And the Arabs say: "ataytu amran ʿaẓīman" and "bi-amrin ʿaẓīmin" (I committed a tremendous matter / with a tremendous matter), and "takallamtu bi-kalāmin qabīḥin" and "kalāman qabīḥan" (I spoke with ugly words / ugly words).