then kill the one who commits it and the one upon whom it is committed,” narrated by Abū Dāwūd. In another wording: “Stone the upper party and the lower.”

Another form of liwat is for a man to approach his wife through her anus. Allah the Exalted says, “So approach them from where Allah has commanded you; indeed Allah loves those who continually repent and loves those who purify themselves” (2:222). Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, and others said: “That means the front (the vagina).” ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah reports from Ibn ʿAbbās: “ ‘Approach them from where Allah has commanded you’—that is, in the vagina; do not go beyond it to anything else. Whoever does so has transgressed.”

Anyone who behaves in this way must receive a punishment severe enough to deter him; and if he persists in the crime, his wife is obliged to seek separation and keep away from him, for he is a contemptible, debased man, unfit for her to remain with under such circumstances.