and have related that ‘Ā’ishah cleared him of this. It is reported that, while she was circumambulating the Ka‘bah, she heard two women mention Hassān ibn Thābit and begin reviling him. ‘Ā’ishah rebuked them, saying: “Is it Ibn al-Furay‘ah you are reviling? By Allah, I hope that Allah will admit him to Paradise for defending the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with his tongue. Was he not the one who said:

My father, his father, and my honour
Are a shield against you for Muhammad’s honour?”

They said to her, “Was he not among those whom Allah cursed in this world and the Hereafter because of what he said about you?” She replied, “He said nothing of the sort. Rather, he is the one who said:

Chaste and dignified, no suspicion stains her name;
She never feeds upon the flesh of unsuspecting women.
If I said what has been ascribed to me,
May my fingers never lift my whip.”

And Allah knows best.

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Whatever the case, the scholars do not disagree that accusing chaste women of adultery is one of the ruinous major sins. It is reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Accusing chaste women of adultery nullifies a hundred years of good deeds.” According to more than one scholar of Medina, this applies so long as the accuser has neither repented nor undergone the prescribed punishment. If the prescribed punishment is carried out upon him, or he repents, the curse—that is, being cast away—is thereby lifted from him, and the reward for his deeds is restored to him.

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The basis for the prescribed punishment is the saying of Allah, Mighty and Majestic:

“Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to produce four witnesses—flog them with eighty lashes, and never accept their testimony thereafter. It is they who are the defiantly disobedient.” [Al-Nūr: 4]

“Except for those who repent afterwards and mend their ways; indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” [Al-Nūr: 5]