Sexual & Indecent Misconduct

4. Sura an-Nisa

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَاللاَّتِي يَأْتِينَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مِن نِّسَآئِكُمْ ...

4: 15.  If any of your women are guilty of lewdness,

C523. Most commentators understand this to refer to adultery or fornication; in that case they consider that the punishment was altered by the later verse, 24:2.

But I think it refers to unnatural crime between women, analogous to unnatural crime between men in 4:16 below; because,

1.     no punishment is specified here for the man, as would be the case where a man was involved in the crime;

2.     the word, al laati, the purely feminine plural of al lati, is used for the parties to the crime;

3.     the punishment is indefinite; see the next note but one.

... فَاسْتَشْهِدُواْ عَلَيْهِنَّ أَرْبَعةً مِّنكُمْ...  

take the evidence of four (reliable) witnesses from amongst you against them;

C524. To protect the honor of women, stricter evidence is required, i.e., the evidence of four instead of the usual two witnesses.

It is the same for adultery (see 24:4.).

... فَإِن شَهِدُواْ فَأَمْسِكُوهُنَّ فِي الْبُيُوتِ حَتَّىَ يَتَوَفَّاهُنَّ الْمَوْتُ ...

and if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them,

... أَوْ يَجْعَلَ اللّهُ لَهُنَّ سَبِيلاً ﴿١٥﴾  

or Allah ordain for them some (other) way.

C525. Keep them in prison until some definite order is received. Those who take the crime to be adultery or fornication construe this definite order ("some other way") to mean some definite pronouncement by the Prophet under inspiration; this was the punishment of flogging under 24:2. for fornication, and stoning to death under the Prophet's directives for adultery.

If we understand the crime to be unnatural crime, we might presume, in the absence of any definite order ("some other way") that the punishment would be similar to that for men in the next verse. The Prophet's Sunnah has prescribed capital punishment although the exact method is left indefinite. (R).

وَاللَّذَانَ يَأْتِيَانِهَا مِنكُمْ فَآذُوهُمَا فَإِن تَابَا ...

4: 16.  If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both.

... وَأَصْلَحَا فَأَعْرِضُواْ عَنْهُمَا...  

If they repent and amend, leave them alone;

... إِنَّ اللّهَ كَانَ تَوَّابًا رَّحِيمًا ﴿١٦﴾  

for Allah is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.

Asad’s Version:

4: 15 And as for those of your women who become guilty of immoral conduct, call upon four from among you who have witnessed their guilt; and if these bear witness thereto, confine the guilty women to their houses until death takes them away or God opens for them a way [through repentance] .

4: 16 And punish both of the guilty parties; but if they both repent and mend their ways, leave them alone; for , behold, God is an acceptor of repentance, a dispenser

of grace.