2 – His words, “The adulteress and the adulterer—flog each of them one hundred lashes, and let no compassion for them withhold you from (applying) the religion of Allah, if you truly believe in Allah and the Last Day; and let a group of the believers witness their punishment” (Quran 24:2).

• This is the legal penalty for an unmarried fornicator, male or female: one hundred lashes—blows severe enough to cause pain and deter, yet not to kill. It must be carried out openly, not in secret, so that a group of believers witnesses it, because imposing the ḥudūd is essential for curbing crime, and their public nature is what brings about deterrence, restraint, and the public manifestation of the rites of religion. Concealing the punishment, or applying it to some people and not to others, entails many harms.

The Sunnah adds a full year of banishment from one’s homeland along with the lashes. Likewise, the Sunnah—transmitted through recurrent reports and unanimously accepted by the Muslims—establishes that the married adulterer is to be stoned with stones until death.