Answer
Salam (Peace),
Thank you for your question.
Please find the third and final part of the answer to your question below. Find the first part at the link here and the second part at the link here.
Stoning… in the Torah
Related to this punishment is stoning, which is applied in some countries today, in the name of the Islamic law.
However, it is common knowledge that stoning was the punishment that was prescribed in the Torah and not the Quran.
The word “stoning” (al-rajm) is mentioned no where in the Quran. And when stoning occurred at the time of the Prophet Muhammad and was mentioned as a “script”, it was applied and mentioned according to the Torah and not according to the Quran.
The story started when some Jews from Madinah asked the Prophet to judge in some cases of adultery involving Jews. The Quranic verses were revealed to give him an option to judge between them, as they had asked, or “leave them alone”.
He decided to judge between them “according to the Torah” (Al-Nasa’i).
These narrations clearly show that Prophet Muhammad decided to judge according to the Torah in these cases for two reasons:
- Some rabbis in Madinah were concealing the verses from the Torah that mentioned stoning. So, Prophet Muhammad meant to reveal that.
- Some rabbis told him that they apply these punishments selectively, according to the status of the accused. Thus, Muhammad meant to show that the law should apply to all, regardless of the status of the accused.
Badr Al-Din Al-Aini said (in his famous commentaries on Al-Bukhari):
Stoning was according to the Torah before the revelation of the verse that mentioned lashing when the Prophet first arrived in Madinah. (Badr Al-Din Mahmud ibn Ahmad Al-Aini, Umdat al-Qari Sharh Sahih Al-Bukhari, Beirut, n.d., vol. 20, p. 258)
The following are the Quranic verses that were revealed in relation to these incidents:
{[…] Hence, if the Jews of Madinah come to you for judgment, you may either judge between them or leave them alone: for, if you leave them alone, they cannot harm you in any way. But if you do judge, judge between them with equity: verily, God knows those who act equitably.
But how is it that they ask you for judgment seeing that they have the Torah, containing God’s injunctions, and thereafter turn away from your judgment? Such as these, then, are no true believers.
Verily, it is We who bestowed from on high the Torah, wherein there was guidance and light. On its strength did the prophets, who had surrendered themselves unto God, deliver judgment unto those who followed the Jewish faith; and so did the early men of God and the rabbis, inasmuch as some of God’s writ had been entrusted to their care; and they all bore witness to its truth.
Therefore, O children of Israel, hold not men in awe, but stand in awe of Me; and do not barter away My messages for a trifling gain: for they who do not judge in accordance with what God has bestowed from on high are, indeed, deniers of the truth.} (Al-Ma’idah 5:42-44)
Lifting the Burdens
Despite the difference of opinions over the matter, I support the view that stoning was abrogated by the stripes in the verses mentioned before, not the other way around.
After all, Muhammad was sent in order to “relieve the burdens” that were upon the People of the Book.
{[…] those who shall follow the last Apostle, the unlettered Prophet whom they shall find described in the Torah that is with them, and later on in the Gospel: the Prophet who will enjoin upon them the doing of what is right and forbid them the doing of what is wrong, and make lawful to them the good things of life and forbid them the bad things, and lift from them their burdens and the shackles that were upon them.} (Al-A`raf 7: 157)
Today, the application of these punishments in some Muslim countries is rather arbitrary, and only targets the weak, the poor, and those who do not have the means or the connections to avoid them.
This is, by itself is an “uncertainty” (shubhah) that renders the application unfair and calls for bringing it to a halt.
Any uncertainty about the justice of applying any of the punishments prescribed in the Islamic law is enough grounds for the punishment to be suspended.
The level of uncertainty about the justice in today’s “Islamic” legal systems is higher than ever.
I hope this answers your question. Please keep in touch.
Peace.
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