As for the Book of Allah, it is what is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the hadith of Umar ibn al-Khattab, who said: “Allah sent down the Quran to His Prophet, and among what He sent down was the verse of stoning. We recited it, retained it, and understood it. The Prophet ﷺ carried out stoning, and we carried it out after him. I fear that, when a long time has passed over people, they will say, ‘We do not find stoning in the Book of Allah,’ and thus go astray by abandoning an obligation that Allah sent down. Indeed, stoning is an established right in the Book of Allah for one who commits fornication after having been previously married, when the evidence is established, or there is pregnancy, or a confession.” (1)

This is Umar’s testimony, delivered from the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the presence of the Companions, with no one objecting, that the verse of stoning was sent down in the Quran, recited, retained, and acted upon in the time of the Prophet ﷺ and during the era of his Rightly Guided Caliphs. What, then, was the wording of this verse?

The wording of this verse must necessarily correspond to the established ruling.

As for those who say that the wording of the verse was: “If the old man and old woman commit fornication, stone them both without hesitation, as a punishment from Allah; and Allah is Almighty, All-Wise,” (2) this is not sound for several reasons:

First: whoever reads it finds in it no trace of the noble Quran or of the speech of the Lord of the worlds.

Second: the ruling it contains differs from the established ruling, for the ruling in this wording is contingent upon old age—upon being elderly—whether this