ʿĀʾishah the Truthful, daughter of al-Ṣiddīq, was subjected—together with a devout Companion, Ṣafwān ibn al-Muʿaṭṭal—to the accusation of adultery. Allah, exalted is He, cleared her of that calumny, thereby increasing her purity and honor, when He revealed verses that will be recited until the Day of Resurrection in Sūrat al-Nūr.

After those verses came down, the Prophet ﷺ announced her exoneration to the Muslims and recited the revealed passage from the pulpit. When he stepped down, the two male slanderers—Ḥassān ibn Thābit and Mistah ibn Uthāthah—and the woman, Ḥamnah bint Jahsh, were brought before him, and he carried out on them the prescribed penalty for qadhf because their falsehood had been established.

The ḥadīth confirms the reality of qadhf, the fixed punishment attached to it, and the obligation to apply it to the lying accuser. The statutory ḥadd for qadhf is eighty lashes if the offender is free, and forty lashes if the offender is a slave.

The ḥadd for qadhf is waived in any one of four cases:
(a) The victim pardons the slanderer. The Shaykh said: “The slanderer is not punished unless the victim lodges a complaint, by unanimous agreement.”
(b) The victim acknowledges the truth of the accusation.
(c) The slanderer produces conclusive evidence for the charge.
(d) A man accuses his own wife and then resorts to liʿān (mutual imprecation).

Qadhf itself carries several legal rulings:
(a) It is prohibited when the accuser is lying.
(b) It becomes obligatory for a man who has seen his wife commit adultery and she later bears a child whom he strongly suspects belongs to the adulterer.
(c) It is permissible when a man witnesses his wife’s adultery but no child is born whose parentage he must deny; in that situation he may choose between divorcing her and accusing her. Divorce is preferable, for it conceals the matter, whereas accusing her will either oblige one of them to swear falsely or leave her to confess and be disgraced.