you merely kissed her or fondled her?” He answered, “No.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ kept refining the questions until every conceivable doubt had been eliminated.

If, however, the offender withdraws his confession before the ḥadd (prescribed penalty) is carried out, the punishment is not enforced. This is because the Prophet ﷺ repeatedly questioned Māʿiz and others, hoping they might retract, and because when Māʿiz fled the scene he ﷺ said, “Why did you not leave him? Perhaps he will repent and Allah will accept his repentance.”

The second way zinā is established is through the testimony of four witnesses, as Allah the Exalted says, “Why did they not bring four witnesses to it?” (Quran 24:13); “Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to produce four witnesses—flog them with eighty lashes” (Quran 24:4); and, “Call four of your own men to witness against them” (Quran 4:15).

For their testimony to be valid, five conditions must be met:

1. All four witnesses must testify in the same sitting.
2. Their testimony must relate to one and the same act of adultery—that is, a single occurrence.
3. They must describe the intercourse in such explicit terms that no other illicit pleasure, which would not incur the ḥadd, could be intended.
4. The witnesses must be upright men; the testimony of women or of openly sinful individuals is inadmissible.
5. None of them may have a disqualifying impairment, such as blindness or the like.