Nor can it have been abrogated, for had it been abrogated, ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb could not properly have intended to write it into the Quran when, having been abrogated, it was no longer part of it. Since it can neither have remained in force nor have been abrogated, it cannot have been Quran. Rather, ʿUmar intended—and Allah knows best—to record it as revelation, not as Quran. But when he feared that someone seeing it written in the Quranic codex might think it was Quran, he refrained from recording it there.

It has also been said that it was recited as revelation and that ʿUmar mistook it for Quran. This was the view of Ismāʿīl al-Qādī. It is, however, unlikely, for ʿUmar cannot reasonably be supposed to have mistaken something that was not Quran for Quran. Among the distinguishing characteristics of the Quran is that it is preserved and known with certainty, admitting neither doubt nor uncertainty concerning any part of it. How could ʿUmar mistake something for Quran?

“But the punishment shall be averted from her” [al-Nūr: 8], or through the implication of His words:

“And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses” [al-Nūr: 4].

For these words indicate that, had they produced four witnesses, a ruling would have applied to those women on that basis. That ruling is what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, explained: stoning in the case of a non-virgin.

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The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prescribed flogging together with stoning, just as he prescribed banishment together with flogging. This accords with the report of ʿUbāda ibn al-Sāmit that he said:

“Take this from me: Allah has now made a way for them. For a virgin with a virgin: one hundred lashes and banishment for a year. For a non-virgin with a non-virgin: one hundred lashes and stoning.”

Then he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, abrogated the flogging he had prescribed alongside stoning for the non-virgin. This is established by the report of Abū Hurayra and others “that he stoned Māʿiz without flogging him,” and by what Abū Hurayra and Zayd ibn Khālid al-Juhanī narrated; and Ibn Maʿbad was asked, according to the transmission of Ibn