Book of Liʿān (Mutual Imprecation)

Liʿān is preceded by an accusation of fornication (qadhf) stated in plain terms of zina. Examples include saying to a man or a woman, “You committed zina,” or addressing one of them, “O adulterer,” “O adulteress.” Explicit qadhf is also committed by alleging “the glans was inserted into a vagina in a forbidden act,” or “into an anus.”

The utterance “zanāʾtu on the mountain” is regarded as an innuendo, as is simply saying “zanāʾtu,” according to the sounder view; whereas saying “zanaytu on the mountain” is, on the stronger opinion, an explicit accusation.

Expressions such as “O debauchee,” “O reprobate,” or, to a woman, “O vile one,” “You are fond of seclusion,” or, to a Qurashi, “You Nabataean,” and telling one’s wife, “I did not find you a virgin,” are all indirect; if the speaker swears that he did not mean qadhf, his oath is accepted.

Saying, “O lawful-born son,” or, “As for you, you are not an adulterer,” and similar hints, is merely an insinuation and does not amount to qadhf, even if he intended it.

The statement, “I committed zina with you,” is simultaneously a confession of zina and a slander against the addressee.

If a husband says to his wife, “O adulteress,” and she replies, “I committed zina with you,” or, “You are more adulterous than I,” he is the slanderer and her reply suffices to establish that. Yet if she says, “I committed zina, and you are more adulterous than I,” she is both confessing and slandering.

Saying, “Your private part committed zina,” or, “Your penis committed zina,” constitutes qadhf. The relied-upon position is that saying, “Your hand” or “your eye [committed zina]” does not.

To one’s own child, the words, “You are not of me,” or, “You are not my son,” are an innuendo; to someone else’s child, “You are not the son of so-and-so” is an explicit slander—unless that child has already been disavowed through liʿān.

Whoever slanders a muḥṣan (chaste person) is liable to the prescribed hadd; if the target is not muḥṣan, the offender receives a discretionary punishment (taʿzīr).

A muḥṣan is a legally accountable, free, Muslim individual who has abstained from illicit intercourse that incurs a hadd. Chastity is nullified, according to the school, by illicit intercourse with a slave woman; it is not nullified by intercourse with one’s wife while she is in a doubtful waiting period (ʿidda shubha), with one’s son’s slave woman, nor—on the sounder view—with a woman one married without a guardian.

If the person who was slandered has in fact committed fornication, the hadd for qadhf is waived; it is not waived merely because that person later apostatizes. Someone who once committed fornication and then reformed is not considered muḥṣan again.

The right to demand the hadd for qadhf passes to the heirs and is extinguished by pardon. The stronger view is that all heirs inherit that right, and if some of them pardon, the entire right remains with the rest.