If any one of these conditions is missing, the ḥadd for slander (qadhf) must be carried out against the would-be witnesses, for they have become slanderers. Allah the Exalted says: “Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to produce four witnesses—flog them with eighty lashes” (Quran 24:4).

Adultery is thus proven either by the testimony just described or by a confession, and the scholars unanimously agree on that. They differ, however, about a third possible proof: pregnancy. If a woman who has neither husband nor master is found to be pregnant, some jurists say the ḥadd is not enforced, for the pregnancy might be the result of coercion or of intercourse involving some doubtful circumstance. Others hold that she is punished unless she claims such a doubt.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “This is what has been transmitted from the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and it is closest to the principles of the Sacred Law and to the position of the people of Madinah, for remote possibilities are not considered.”

Ibn al-Qayyim stated, “ʿUmar ruled that a woman who became pregnant while having neither husband nor master was to be stoned. This is also the view of Mālik and the sounder of the two reports from Aḥmad, for it relies on clear circumstantial evidence.”

Just as the ḥadd for zinā is obligatory once its conditions are met, the ḥadd for liwat—anal intercourse—is equally obligatory. It is a vile crime, a repulsive perversion that violates sound human nature.

Allah the Exalted says about the people of Lot: “Do you commit an indecency that no one among the worlds ever committed before you? You approach men with desire instead of women; you are indeed a people who exceed all bounds” (Quran 7:80–81). Its prohibition is established by the Quran, the Sunnah, and the unanimous consensus of the Muslim community.