They said: Falsely accusing one who is not muḥṣan entails a discretionary punishment. Thus, if the accuser is free and the accused is a slave, he is to be given a discretionary punishment.
If he falsely accuses a disbeliever—even a dhimmī—he is to be given a discretionary punishment. Likewise, if he falsely accuses a person suspected of fornication, he is to be given a discretionary punishment, but the prescribed punishment is not carried out against him, because such a person is not chaste.
Likewise, if he falsely accuses a young child with whom intercourse is not possible, he is to be given a discretionary punishment. If someone were to say: The verse is general: “And those who accuse chaste women…” [al-Nūr 24:4], we would reply: But, in the terminology of the Sacred Law, a slave is not called muḥṣan. Accordingly, he falls outside the qualification rather than being included within it; hence, no evidence is needed to exclude him.
What is the evidence for stipulating that he be Muslim?
The answer is Allah’s saying: “Indeed, those who accuse chaste, unsuspecting believing women are cursed in this world and the Hereafter, and theirs will be a tremendous punishment.” [al-Nūr 24:23] The Prophet ﷺ also said: “Falsely accusing chaste, unsuspecting believing women” (1).
The condition that intercourse be possible with him is stipulated because one with whom intercourse is not possible is never disgraced by such an accusation, and people generally do not conceive of fornication occurring from one of that age. Moreover, a person of this age is not sullied by the accusation, even if it were established that he had committed fornication.
The explicit wording of false accusation is: “O fornicator,” “O one who commits the act of the people of Lot,” and the like. Its allusive wording includes: “O prostitute,” “O immoral woman,” “O wicked woman,” “You have disgraced your husband,” “You have made him hang his head,” or, “You have given him horns,” and the like. If he explains it as meaning something other than a false accusation, his explanation is accepted. If he falsely accuses the people of an entire town, or a group among whom fornication is customarily inconceivable, he is to be given a discretionary punishment. The prescribed punishment for false accusation is waived by pardon, and it is not carried out without a claim being brought.
His statement, “The explicit wording of false accusation”: false accusation has explicit and allusive wording; divorce has explicit and allusive wording; and endowment has explicit and allusive wording. What, then, is the explicit wording in each expression? They say: the explicit wording in every expression is that which admits of no meaning other than the one for which it was coined. If it can bear this meaning or another, then it is allusive.
His statement, “O fornicator; O one who commits the act of the people of Lot”: its explicit form is for him to address someone with this description, or to say, “You are a fornicator; you commit the act of the people of Lot.”