6 – The hadith confirms that stoning was carried out in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, as is likewise established by other authentic reports.

7 – It also demonstrates the concern of the early Muslims that Allah’s rulings and obligations might be forgotten and neglected if people stopped enforcing them—a situation that, regrettably, now prevails in many Muslim countries, where the laws of Allah have been set aside in favor of rule by ṭāghūt (man-made tyranny).

8 – Legal rulings are not confined to the Qur’an alone; rather, the Prophet ﷺ was given the Qur’an and, along with it, a comparable body of wisdom. All of it must therefore be acted upon, for it is all from Allah Most High.

Scholarly disagreement

The jurists differ over the penalty for one who commits fornication with a woman who is permanently unlawful to him:

• The three Imams—Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad—maintain that he is treated like any other fornicator with a non-maḥram woman: the unmarried offender is lashed and exiled, while the previously married offender is stoned. This is based on the general wording of the Qur’anic verse and the prophetic report, and it is also the view of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Abū Thawr, and the two companions of Abū Ḥanīfah.

• A second narration from Imām Aḥmad—which is one of the distinctive positions of his school—states that such a person is executed outright, whether virgin or previously married. Sharḥ al-Mufradāt says: “If a man has intercourse with one of his prohibited relatives—his mother or sister—by means of a marriage contract or otherwise, then in one report his ḥadd is execution.” This was also the position of Jābir ibn Zayd, Isḥāq, Abū Ayyūb, and Ibn Abī Khaythamah.

Their evidence includes the narration recorded by Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī (who graded it ḥasan) from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib: “I met my uncle carrying a banner and asked, ‘Where are you going?’ He replied, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent me to a man who married his father’s wife after him, ordering me to strike his neck and confiscate his property.’”

They also cite the report transmitted by al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, al-Ḥākim, Aḥmad, and others from Ibn ʿAbbās in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever has sexual intercourse with a woman who is a maḥram, execute him.”