24. Surah an-Nur
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَالَّذِينَ
يَرْمُونَ
الْمُحْصَنَاتِ
ثُمَّ لَمْ
يَأْتُوا بِأَرْبَعَةِ
شُهَدَاء...
24:4. And those who launch a charge against chaste women, and produce not four witnesses, (to support their allegation) --
...فَاجْلِدُوهُمْ ثَمَانِينَ جَلْدَةً وَلَا تَقْبَلُوا لَهُمْ شَهَادَةً أَبَدًا...
flog them with eighty stripes: and reject their evidence ever after:
C2958. The most serious notice is taken of people who put forward slanders or scandalous suggestions about women without adequate evidence.
If anything is said against a woman's chastity, it should be supported by evidence twice as strong as would ordinarily be required for business transactions, or even in murder cases. That is, four witnesses would be required instead of two. Failing such preponderating evidence, the slanderer should himself be treated as a wicked transgressor and punished with eighty stripes. Not only would he be subjected to this disgraceful form of punishment, but he would be deprived of the citizen's right of giving evidence in all matters unless he repents and reforms, in which case he can be readmitted to be a competent witness.
The verse lays down the punishment for slandering "chaste women", which by consensus of opinion also covers slandering chaste men.
Chaste women have been specifically mentioned, according to Commentators, because slandering them is more abhorrent. (Eds).
...وَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ ﴿٤﴾
for such men are wicked transgressors --
إِلَّا
الَّذِينَ
تَابُوا مِن
بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ
وَأَصْلَحُوا
...
24: 5. Unless they repent thereafter and mend (their conduct):
C2959. The punishment of stripes is inflicted in any case for unsupported slander. But the deprivation of the civic right of giving evidence can be cancelled by the man's subsequent conduct, if he repents, shows that he is sorry for what he did, and that he would not in future support by his statement anything for which he has not the fullest evidence.
Secular courts do not enforce these principles, as their standards are lower than those which good Muslims set for themselves, but good Muslims must understand and act on the underlying principles, which protect the honour of womanhood.
Abu Hanifa considers that neither the stripes nor the incompetence for giving future evidence is cancelled by repentance, but only the spiritual stigma of being "wicked transgressors". This of course is the more serious punishment, though it cannot be enforced in the Courts.
... فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ ﴿٥﴾
for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
(24:4) [Asad] And as for those who accuse chaste women [of adultery], 6 and then are unable to produce four witnesses [in support of their accusation], flog them with eighty stripes; 7 and ever after refuse to accept from them any testimony - since it is they, they that are truly depraved!
(24:5) excepting [from this interdict] only those who afterwards repent and made amends: 8 for, behold, God is much-forgiving, a
dispenser of grace.
[[Asad’s notes:
6 The term muhsanat denotes literally "women who are fortified [against unchastity] ", i.e., by marriage and/or faith and self-respect, implying that, from a legal point of view, every woman must be considered chaste unless a conclusive proof to the contrary is produced. (This passage relates to women other than the accuser's own wife, for in the latter case - as shown in verses 6-9 - the law of evidence and the consequences are different.
7 By obvious implication, this injunction applies also to cases where a woman accuses a man of illicit sexual intercourse, and is subsequently unable to prove her accusation legally. The severity of the punishment to be meted out in such cases, as well as the requirement of four witnesses - instead of the two that Islamic Law regards as sufficient in all other criminal and civil suits - is based on the imperative necessity of preventing slander and off-hand accusations. As laid down in several authentic sayings of the Prophet, the evidence of the four witnesses must be direct, and not merely circumstantial: in other words, it is not sufficient for them to have witnessed a situation which made it evident that sexual intercourse was taking or had taken
place: they must have witnessed the sexual act as such, and must be able to prove this to the entire satisfaction of the judicial authority (Razi, summing up the views of the greatest exponents of Islamic Law). Since such a complete evidence is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, it is obvious that the purpose of the above Qur'anic injunction is to preclude, in practice, all third-party accusations relating to illicit sexual intercourse - for, "man has been created weak" (4: 28) - and to make a proof of adultery dependent on a voluntary, faith- inspired confession of the guilty parties themselves.
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَالَّذِينَ
يَرْمُونَ
أَزْوَاجَهُمْ
وَلَمْ يَكُن
لَّهُمْ شُهَدَاء
إِلَّا
أَنفُسُهُمْ...
24: 6. And for those who launch a charge against their spouses, and have (in support) no evidence but their own --
C2960. The case of married persons is different from that of outsiders. If one of them accuses the other of unchastity, the accusation partly reflects on the accuser as well.
Moreover, the link which unites married people, even where differences supervene, is sure to act as a steadying influence against the concoction of false charges of unchastity particularly where divorce is allowed (as in Islam) for reasons other than unchastity.
Suppose a husband catches a wife in adultery. In the nature of things four witnesses - or even one outside witness - would be impossible. Yet after such an experience it is against human nature that he can live a normal married life. The matter is then left to the honour of the two spouses.
If the husband can solemnly swear four times to the fact, and in addition invoke a curse on himself if he lies, that is prima facie evidence of the wife's guilt. But if the wife swears similarly four times and similarly invokes a curse on herself, she is in law acquitted of the guilt. If she does not take this step, the charge is held proved and the punishment follows.
In either case the marriage is dissolved, as it is against human nature that the parties can live together happily after such an incident.
...فَشَهَادَةُ أَحَدِهِمْ أَرْبَعُ شَهَادَاتٍ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّهُ لَمِنَ الصَّادِقِينَ ﴿٦﴾
their solitary evidence (can be received) if they bear witness four times (with an oath) by Allah that they are solemnly telling the truth;
وَالْخَامِسَةُ
أَنَّ
لَعْنَتَ اللَّهِ
عَلَيْهِ إِن
كَانَ مِنَ
الْكَاذِبِينَ
﴿٧﴾
24: 7. And the fifth (oath) (should be) that they solemnly invoke the curse of Allah on themselves if they tell a lie.
وَيَدْرَأُ
عَنْهَا
الْعَذَابَ
أَنْ تَشْهَدَ
أَرْبَعَ شَهَادَاتٍ
بِاللَّهِ...
24: 8. But it would avert the punishment from the wife, if she bears witness four times (with an oath) by Allah,
...إِنَّهُ لَمِنَ الْكَاذِبِينَ ﴿٨﴾
that (her husband) is telling a lie;
وَالْخَامِسَةَ
أَنَّ
غَضَبَ اللَّهِ
عَلَيْهَا إِن
كَانَ مِنَ
الصَّادِقِينَ
﴿٩﴾
24: 9. And the fifth (oath) should be that she solemnly invokes the wrath of Allah on herself if (her accuser) is telling the truth.
وَلَوْلَا
فَضْلُ اللَّهِ
عَلَيْكُمْ
وَرَحْمَتُهُ...
24: 10. If it were not for Allah's grace and mercy on you,
...وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ تَوَّابٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿١٠﴾
and that Allah is Oft-Returning, Full of Wisdom -- (ye would be ruined indeed).
C2961. Cf. 24:11-14, and n. 2962, which illustrates the matter by a concrete instance.
إِنَّ
الَّذِينَ
جَاؤُوا بِالْإِفْكِ
عُصْبَةٌ مِّنكُمْ...
24: 11. Those who brought forward the lie are a body among yourselves:
C2962. The particular incident here referred to occurred on the return from the expedition to the Banui Mustaliq, A.H. 5-6.
When the march was ordered, Hadhrat Aisha was not in her tent, having gone to search for a valuable necklace she had dropped. As her litter was veiled, it was not noticed that she was not in it, until the army reached the next halt. Meanwhile, finding the camp had gone, she sat down to rest, hoping that some one would come back to fetch her when her absence was noticed.
It was night, and she fell asleep. Next morning she was found by Safwan, a Muhajir, who had been left behind the camp expressly to pick up anything inadvertently left behind. He put her on his camel and brought her, leading the camel on foot.
This gave occasion to enemies to raise a malicious scandal. The ringleader among them was the chief of Madinah Hypocrites, Abdullah ibn Ubai, who is referred to in the last clause of this verse.
He had other sins and enormities to his debit, and he was left to the punishment of an unrepentant sinner, for he died in that state. The minor tools were given the legal punishment of the law, and after penitence mended their lives. They made good.
...لَا تَحْسَبُوهُ شَرًّا لَّكُم بَلْ هُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ...
think it not to be an evil to you: on the contrary it is good for you:
C2963. It is worse for a scandal to be whispered about with bated breath, than that it should be brought into the light of day and disproved.
...لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مِّنْهُم مَّا اكْتَسَبَ مِنَ الْإِثْمِ...
to every man among them (will come the punishment) of the sin that he earned,
...وَالَّذِي تَوَلَّى كِبْرَهُ مِنْهُمْ لَهُ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ ﴿١١﴾
and to him who took on himself the lead among them, will be a Penalty grievous.
C2964. The ringleader: see n. 2962 above.
لَوْلَا
إِذْ
سَمِعْتُمُوهُ
ظَنَّ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ
بِأَنفُسِهِمْ
خَيْرًا...
24: 12. Why did not Believers -- men and women -- when ye heard of the affair -- put the best construction on it in their own minds
C2965. Both men and women were involved in spreading the scandal. Their obvious duty was to put the best, not the worst, construction on the acts of one of the "mothers of the Believers".
...وَقَالُوا هَذَا إِفْكٌ مُّبِينٌ ﴿١٢﴾
and say, "This (charge) is an obvious lie"?
لَوْلَا
جَاؤُوا
عَلَيْهِ بِأَرْبَعَةِ
شُهَدَاء...
24: 13. Why did they not bring four witnesses to prove it?
C2966. If any persons took it seriously, it was their duty to search for and produce the evidence, in the absence of which they themselves became guilty of slander.
...فَإِذْ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِالشُّهَدَاء فَأُوْلَئِكَ عِندَ اللَّهِ هُمُ الْكَاذِبُونَ ﴿١٣﴾
When they have not brought the witnesses, such men, in the sight of Allah, (stand forth) themselves as liars!
وَلَوْلَا
فَضْلُ اللَّهِ
عَلَيْكُمْ
وَرَحْمَتُهُ
فِي الدُّنْيَا
وَالْآخِرَةِ...
24: 14. Were it not for the grace and mercy of Allah on you, in this world and the Hereafter,
...لَمَسَّكُمْ فِي مَا أَفَضْتُمْ فِيهِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ ﴿١٤﴾
a grievous penalty would have seized you in that ye rushed glibly into this affair.
C2967. Cf. 24:10 above.
It was Allah's mercy that saved them from many evil consequences, both in this life and in the Hereafter,
- in this life, because the Prophet's wise measures nipped in the bud any incipient estrangement between those nearest and dearest to him, and
- from a spiritual aspect in that the minor agents in spreading the scandal repented and were forgiven.
No doubts and divisions, no mutual distrust, were allowed to remain in their hearts after the whole matter had been cleared up.
إِذْ
تَلَقَّوْنَهُ
بِأَلْسِنَتِكُمْ
وَتَقُولُونَ
بِأَفْوَاهِكُم
مَّا
لَيْسَ لَكُم
بِهِ عِلْمٌ...
24: 15. Behold, ye received it on your tongues, and said out of your mouths things of which ye had no knowledge;
...وَتَحْسَبُونَهُ هَيِّنًا وَهُوَ عِندَ اللَّهِ عَظِيمٌ ﴿١٥﴾
and ye thought it to be a light matter, while it was most serious in the sight of Allah.
C2968. There are three things here reprobated by way of moral teaching:
1. if others speak an evil word, that is no reason why you should allow it to defile your tongue;
2. if you get a thought or suspicion which is not based on your certain knowledge, do not give it currency by giving it expression; and
3. others may think it is a small matter to speak lightly of something which blasts a person's character or reputation: in the eyes of Allah it is a most serious matter in any case, but specially when it involves the honour and reputation of pious women.
وَلَوْلَا
إِذْ سَمِعْتُمُوهُ
قُلْتُم مَّا
يَكُونُ لَنَا
أَن نَّتَكَلَّمَ
بِهَذَا...
24: 16. And why did ye not, when ye heard it, say --
"It is not right of us to speak of this:
...سُبْحَانَكَ هَذَا بُهْتَانٌ عَظِيمٌ ﴿١٦﴾
Glory to Allah!
this is a most serious slander!"
C2969. The right course would have been to stop any further currency of false slanders by ignoring them and at least refusing to help in their circulation.
The exclamation "Subhanaka", "Praise to Thee (O Allah)", or "Glory to Allah!" is an exclamation of surprise and disavowal as much as to say,
"We do not believe it! And we shall have nothing to do with you, 0 false slanderers!"
يَعِظُكُمُ
اللَّهُ
أَن تَعُودُوا
لِمِثْلِهِ
أَبَدًا إِن
كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
﴿١٧﴾
24: 17. Allah doth admonish you, that ye may never repeat such (conduct), if ye are (true) Believers.
وَيُبَيِّنُ
اللَّهُ لَكُمُ
الْآيَاتِ...
24: 18. And Allah makes the Signs plain to you:
...وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿١٨﴾
for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.
Asad’s vesion 24:6-18
24:6
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,
(24:7) and the fifth time, that God's curse be upon him if he is telling a lie.
(24:8) 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, (24:9) and the fifth [time], that God's curse be upon her if he is telling the truth. 10
24:10
AND WERE it not for God's favour upon you, [O man,] and His grace, and that God is a wise
acceptor of repentance...!" (24:11) Verily, numerous among you are those who would falsely
accuse others of unchastity: 12 [but, O you who are thus wronged,] deem it not a bad thing for
you: nay, it is good for you! 13
[As for the slanderers,] unto every one of them [will be accounted] all that he has earned by
[thus] sinning; and awesome suffering awaits any of them who takes it upon himself to
enhance this [sin] ! "
8 I.e., who publicly withdraw their accusation after having suffered the punishment of flogging -
which, being a legal right of the wrongly accused person, cannot be obviated by mere repentance
and
admission of guilt. Thus, the above-mentioned exemption relates only to the interdict on giving
testimony and not to the punishment by flogging.
9 Lit., "then the testimony of any of these shall be four testimonies [or "solemn affirmations"]
before God".
10 Thus, the husband's accusation is to be regarded as proven if the wife refuses to take an oath
to the contrary, and disproved if she solemnly sets her word against his, Inasmuch as this
procedure, which is called li'an ("oath of condemnation"), leaves the question of guilt legally
undecided, both parties are absolved of all the legal consequences otherwise attending upon
adultery - resp. an unproven accusation of adultery - the only consequence being a mandatory
divorce.
1 1 This sentence, which introduces the section dealing with the condemnation of all unfounded or
unproven accusations of unchastity - as well as the similar sentence which closes it in verse 20
- is deliberately left incomplete, leaving it to man to imagine what would have happened to
individual lives and to society if God had not ordained all the above-mentioned legal and moral
safeguards against possibly false accusations, or if He had made a proof of adultery dependent
on mere circumstantial evidence. This idea is further elaborated inverses 14-15.
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12 Lit., "those who brought forth the lie (al-ifk, here denoting a false accusation of unchastity)
are a numerous group ('usbah) among you" . The term 'usbah signifies any group of people, of
indeterminate number, banded together for a particular purpose (Taj al-'Arus). - According to all
the commentators, the passage comprising verses 1 1 -20 relates to an incident which occurred on
the Prophet's return from the campaign against the tribe of Mustaliq in the year 5 H. The
Prophet's wife 'A'ishah, who had accompanied him on that expedition, was inadvertently left
behind when the Muslims struck camp before dawn. After having spent several hours alone, she
was
found by one of the Prophet's companions, who led her to the next halting-place of the army.
This incident gave rise to malicious insinuations of misconduct on the part of A'ishah; but
these rumours were short-lived, and her innocence was established beyond all doubt. - As is the
case with all Qur'anic allusions to historical events, this one, too, is primarily meant to
bring out an ethical proposition valid for all times and all social circumstances: and this is
the reason why the grammatical construction of the above passage is such that the past-tense
verbs occurring inverses 11-16 can be - and, I believe, should be - understood as denoting
the present tense.
24:12
Why do not the believing men and women, whenever such [a rumour] is heard, 15 think the best
of one another and say, "This is an obvious falsehood"? (24:13) Why do they not [demand of
the accusers 16 that they] produce four witnesses to prove their allegation? 17 - for, if they do not
produce such witnesses, it is those [accusers] who, in the sight of God, are liars indeed!
24:14
And were it not for God's favour upon you, [O men,] and His grace in this world and in the
life to come, awesome suffering would indeed have afflicted you 18 in result of all [the
calumny] in which you indulge (24:15) when you take it up with your tongues, uttering with
your mouths something of which you have no knowledge, and deeming it a light matter
whereas in the sight of God it is an awful thing!
24:16
And [once again]: Why do you not say, whenever you hear such [a rumour], "It does not
behove us to speak of this, O Thou who art limitless in Thy glory: this is an awesome
calumny"? 1 ' (24: 17) God admonishes you [hereby] lest you ever revert to the like of this [sin],
if you are [truly] believers; (24: 18) for God makes [His] messages clear unto you - and God is
all-knowing, wise!
1 3 I.e., in the sight of God: for, the unhappiness caused by unjust persecution confers - as does
every undeserved and patiently borne suffering - a spiritual merit on the person thus afflicted.
Cf. the saying of the Prophet, quoted by Bukhari and Muslim: "Whenever a believer is stricken
with
any hardship, or pain, or anxiety, or sorrow, or harm, or distress - even if it be a thorn that
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has hurt him - God redeems thereby some of his failings."
14 I.e„ by stressing, in a legally and morally inadmissible manner, certain "circumstantial" details
or aspects of the case in order to make the slanderous, unfounded allegation more believable,
1 5 Lit.; "whenever you hear it" - the pronoun "you" indicating here the community as a whole.
1 6 This interpolation is necessary in view of the fact that the believers spoken of in the preceding
verse are blamed, not for making the false accusation, but for not giving it the lie.
17 Lit., "in support thereof" ('alayhi).
18 Sc, "yourselves and your whole society" . With this and the next verse the discourse returns to,
and elaborates, the idea touched upon in verse 10 and explained in note 1 1 .
19 The interjection subhanaka ("O Thou who art limitless in Thy glory") stresses here the
believer's
moral duty to bethink himself of God whenever he is tempted to listen to, or to repeat, a calumny
(since every such rumour must be considered a calumny unless its truth is legally Proved).
24:19
(19) Verily, as for those who like [to hear] foul slander 20 spread against [any of] those who
have attained to faith - grievous suffering awaits them in this world 21 and in the life to come:
for God knows [the full truth], whereas you know [it] not. 22
24:20
And were it not for God's favour upon you and His grace, and that God is compassionate, a
dispenser of grace... (24:21) O YOU who have attained to faith! Follow not Satan's footsteps:
for he who follows Satan's foot steps [will find that], behold, he enjoins but deeds of
abomination and all that runs counter to reason. 24
And were it not for God's favour upon you and His grace, not one of you would ever have
remained pure. For [thus it is:] it is God who causes whomever He wills to grow in purity: for
God is all-hearing, all-knowing. (24:22) Hence, [even if they have been wronged by slander,]
let not those of you who have been graced with [God's] favour and ease of life ever become
remiss in helping 25 [the erring ones among] their near of kin, and the needy, and those who
have forsaken the domain of evil for the sake of God, 26 but let them pardon and forbear. [For,]
do you not desire that God should forgive you your sins, seeing that God is much-forgiving, a
dispenser of grace? 27
20 The term fahishah signifies anything that is morally reprehensible or abominable: hence,
"immoral conduct" in the widest sense of this expression. In the above context it refers to
unfounded or unproven allegations of immoral conduct, in other words, "foul slander" .
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21 I.e., the legal punishment as stipulated inverse 4 of this surah.
22 This Qur'anic warning against slander and, by obvious implication, against any attempt at
seeking
out other people's faults finds a clear echo in several well-authenticated sayings of the Prophet:
"Beware of all guesswork [about one another], for, behold, all [such] guesswork is most
deceptive
(akdhab al-hadith); and do not spy upon one another, and do not try to bare [other people's]
failings"
(Muwatta 1 ); almost identical versions of this Tradition have been quoted by Bukhari, Muslim and
Abu
Da'ud); "Do not hurt those who have surrendered themselves to God (al-muslimin), and do not
impute
evil to them, and do not try to uncover their nakedness [i.e., their faults] : for, behold, if
anyone tries to uncover his brother's nakedness, God will uncover his own nakedness [on the
Day
of Judgment]" (Tirimidhi); and, "Never does a believer draw a veil over the nakedness of another
believer without God's drawing a veil over his own nakedness on Resurrection Day" (Bukhari).
All
these injunctions have received their seal, as it were, in the Qur'anic exhortation: "Avoid most
guesswork [about one another] - for, behold, some of [such] guesswork is [in itself] a sin"
(49:12).
23 See verse 10 of this surah and the corresponding note 11.
24 In this context, the term al-munkar has apparently the same meaning as in 16:90 (explained in
the corresponding note 109) since, as the sequence shows, it clearly relates to the unreasonable
self-righteousness of so many people who "follow Satan's footsteps" by imputing moral failings
to
others and forgetting that it is only due to God's grace that man, in his inborn weakness, can
ever remain pure.
25 Or: "Swear that [henceforth] they would not help [lit., "give to"] , etc. Both these meanings -
"he swore [that]" and "he became remiss [in]" - are attributable to the verb ala; which appears
in the above sentence in the form ya'tal. My rendering is based on the interpretation given to
this verb by the great philologist Abu al-Qasim al-Harawi (cf Lane I, 84).
24:23
[But,] verily, those who [falsely, and without repentance, 28 ] accuse chaste women who may
have been unthinkingly careless but have remained true to their faith, 2 ' shall be rejected [from
God's grace] in this world as well as in the life to come: and awesome suffering awaits them
(24:24) on the Day when their own tongues and hands and feet will bear witness against them
by [recalling] all that they did!
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24:25
On that day will God pay them in full their just due, and they will come to know that God
alone is the Ultimate Truth, manifest, and manifesting [the true nature of all that has ever been
done]. 30 (24:26) [In the nature of things,] corrupt women are for corrupt men, and corrupt men,
for corrupt women just as good women are for good men, and good men