Chapter: The ḥadd for fornication
Fornication (zinā) is the commission of illicit sexual intercourse, whether vaginal or anal.
If the offender is a muḥṣan—one who has previously had vaginal intercourse with a lawful spouse in a valid marriage, while both partners were free and legally accountable—he is to be stoned to death.
If a free person who is not a muḥṣan commits fornication, he is to be lashed one hundred times and banished for one year to a distance that permits the shortening of the prayers.
If the perpetrator is a slave, he is lashed fifty times and not banished.
If a dhimmī fornicates with a Muslim woman, he is put to death.
If the offender is a non-Muslim at war with the Muslims (ḥarbī), no ḥadd is enforced against him.
When a muḥṣan fornicates with someone who is not a muḥṣan1, each receives the penalty applicable to him or her.
Whoever has intercourse with an animal is disciplined with a discretionary punishment (taʿzīr).
The ḥadd becomes obligatory only when three conditions are met:
- The glans—or an equivalent portion—is fully inserted into the front2 or the anus of a living human being.
- No doubtful circumstance (shubha) exists.
- The act is proven, either by a fourfold confession with the offender persisting in that confession, or