The punishment of adultery and sodomy

Praise be to Allah who legislated a punishment for the disobedient to deter the corrupt people, reform the entire people, and to atone the aggressive tyrannts. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone who has no partner, the King and the True. I bear witness that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger the best of Prophets and the leader of the reformers peace be upon him, his family, his Companions, and those who follow them righteously until the Day of Recompense.

O people: fear Allah (may He be Exalted) and admit His Favors upon you, especially the favor of making you Muslims, this religion which is full of mercy and wisdom, mercy in reforming the creation and wisdom in following the path which leads to the utmost goal.

O people: the nature of humans is to have different tendencies some of them are to good and some to evil, and of them are inclinations to error and evil as Allah (may He be Exalted) said: "Certainly, your efforts and deeds are diverse (different in aims and purposes)"

When the souls of people were full of evil, wrong tendencies, and evil deeds that should be detered, the Lord of people who is the Most Wise, the All-Knowing, the Compassionate, and the Merciful legislated different punishments according to the type of the crime to deter the aggressor, reform the corrupt, and atone the evil actions of the criminal because Allah does not account a person twice for one crime, either He punishes him in the world or in the Hereafter. So, He legislated the execution of the Prescribed Penalties on criminals according to their crimes.

The hand of a thief is cut because he uses them in stealing and the punishment of highwaymen if they kill others, they should be killed. However, if they only take money, their hands and legs are to be cut from opposite sides because they use their hands and legs in cutting the way as a retribution to their actions.

False accusers are to be lashed 80 lashes so that honors would not be defamed.

The punishment of a wine drinker is enough for him if he drinks because the Prophet (peace be upon him) described alcohol with the mother of all evils and key of every evil.

As for the crime of the corruption of morals and community collapse which lie in adultery and sodomy, they are horror crimes and therefore deserve a bigger punishment. An adulterer who violates an honor either to be married or unmarried: The married should be stoned to death then should be washed, enshrouded, people offer the funeral Salah for him, and buried with Muslims. If he is unmarried, he is to be lashed one hundred times and should be alienated from the town for one year. O Muslims, if fornication by private parts entails that punishment, there is another kind of fornication which is adultery of organs to which the Prophet (peace be upon him) indicated by his saying: "The Zina of the eye is the (lustful) look, the Zina of the ears is the listening (to voluptuous songs or talk), the Zina of the tongue is (the licentious) speech, the Zina of the hand is the (lustful) grip, the Zina of the feet is the walking (to the place where he intends to commit Zina), the heart yearns and desires and the private parts approve all that or disapprove it."

As for sodomy, which is the anal intercourse with males, it is the most evil act and the most deniable crime, for it corrupts the world as well the religion. It is a destruction of morals, destruction for manhood, corruption to the community, and killing for morals. It takes away goodness and blessings, brings about evils and calamities. It is a cause for humiliation, shame, and scandal. Reasons deny it, sound nature refuses it, and divin legislations prohibit it. Sodomy has a great harm and explicit oppression for the doer and the object. It incurs troubles and inflictions to the society. Allah (Glory be to Him) narrated to us what happened to the people of Lot when he sent upon them a torment from the sky, stones from Hell, and turned their village upside down and said after natting their story "And they are not ever far from the Zâlimûn (polytheists, evil-doers)."

O Muslims, when this fornication pervails in a community and Allah does not destruct them, so wait for what is more terrible which is the darkness of the hearts and insights and reverse of reasons until they keep silent about falsehood or bad actions are decorated to them. However, if Allah granted the nation strong and just rulers who say the truth and execute the punishment without bias, this is the sign of success and reform.

O Muslims, when this crime was one of the worst crimes, its punishment was killing or execution. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done. "

The majority of the Companions agreed to act according to this Hadith. Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah bestow mercy on his soul) said: The Companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not disagree about killing the doer or the object, but they disagreed on how to be killed. Some of them said: They should be stoned to death. Some said: They should be thrown from a high place until they die. Some said: They should be burnt to death.

Both the doer and the object should be executed if they satisfy that action whether they are married or unmarried because of the seriousness of their crime and its bad impacts of the community because leaving them alive is a moral killing to the society and execution to manners and virtue, and no doubt killing them is better than destroying virtue.

O Muslims, as a Muslim community that holds firm with religion and manners, thanks to Allah, we have to exert as much efforts as we could to hold fast with our religion and manners. Moreover, rulers have to stop corruption and corrupted people and to work on reforming the community by purifying the spots of corruption.

Each one of us should monitor his children and his family, and should prevent his women to go out uncovered or applying perfume. Moreover, we should check on our children to know where are they and to whom they go and who are their friends, and try to pick up their friends and prevent them from bad companions. Each street should cooperate to stop evil and corruption, and when a person reforms his family and street and was keen to reform them, goodness shall prevail and that will ensure happiness to the community, but if the people neglect their duty, they shall miss a great goodness.

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan: "And as to those who hold fast to the Book (i.e. act on its teachings) and perform As-Salât (Iqâmat-as-Salât), certainly We shall never waste the reward of those who do righteous deeds." [Surat Al A`raf: 170].

May Allah bless the Glorious Qur'an for you and for me.