Ibn Kathīr said: This is a statement from Allah Most High that the fornicator has intercourse only with a woman who is herself a fornicatrix or an idolatress; that is, no one complies with his desire for illicit sex except a disobedient woman who practices fornication or an idolatress who sees no sanctity in the act. The same applies to the woman who fornicates: “no one marries her except a fornicator or an idolater” (24:3)—meaning a man who sins through fornication or an idolater who does not regard it unlawful.

Al-Nawawī said—citing Ḥabīb ibn Abī ʿAmr, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās—“This is not about marriage but about intercourse: no one commits fornication except a fornicator or an idolater.” This chain is authentic.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim likewise narrated, with his chain, from Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The flogged fornicator may marry only someone like himself.”

Ibn Juzayy commented: The verse aims to censure fornicators and denounce fornication, affirming that only a fornicator or an idolater falls into it, and that no woman consents to him except one who is herself a fornicatrix or an idolatress. Accordingly, the verb “yankihu” here means “to have intercourse.”

Shaykh al-Islām stated: Whoever interprets this verse as referring to the marriage contract—his view is plainly invalid.

4 – Most scholars therefore took the hadith to mean that a flogged fornicator desires to contract marriage only with someone like himself, and that the female fornicator likewise wishes to marry only a sinner like her.

5 – What the hadith actually establishes is a prohibition—not merely a statement of preference: it is unlawful for a fornicator to marry a chaste woman, just as it is unlawful for a chaste woman to marry a fornicator. The prohibition is explicitly affirmed in His words, “and that is forbidden to the believers” (24:3), i.e., those whose faith is complete and who are not fornicators, for “no one commits fornication while he is a believer.”

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī said: A fornicator is approached in marriage by no woman except a fornicatrix whose condition resembles his or an idolatress who associates partners with Allah; and likewise, no one marries the fornicatress except a man who is a fornicator or an idolater.

This is an explicit proof that marrying a woman who has committed fornication is forbidden until she repents—just as arranging her marriage is likewise