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The “chaste women” intended in this verse are free, chaste women. The protected status that makes an accusation of adultery punishable by the prescribed punishment is that conferred by freedom and Islam—the same status that entails one hundred lashes for unlawful sexual intercourse. The words of Allah Most High, “chaste women” [Al-Nūr: 4], encompass both men and women. Since a woman cannot commit adultery except with a man, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, mentioned chaste women without separately mentioning chaste men. This is unanimously agreed upon: no Muslim disputes that accusing a chaste man is like accusing a chaste woman in incurring both the prescribed punishment and sin.
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This reasoning indicates that someone who accuses a group incurs only one prescribed punishment. Whoever accuses a chaste woman also accuses the man who allegedly committed adultery with her, yet Allah Most High has prescribed only one punishment for him. Moreover, He says, “Those who accuse chaste women” [Al-Nūr: 4], referring to women in the plural. The scholars have differed on this issue, holding three opinions:
The first is the position of Mālik and those who agree with him: the accuser incurs one prescribed punishment, whether he accuses them in a single utterance or separately on different occasions. This is also the position of Abū Hanīfah. Its evidence is what we have already stated, and none of Mālik’s followers disagrees on this point. According to Mālik and his followers, if a man accuses a group and receives the prescribed punishment on behalf of one of them, that punishment covers every accusation he made beforehand, whether or not the others have brought their claims. The exception is al-Mughīrah, who says that if they bring their claims separately, he receives a prescribed punishment for each of them. Ibn Shaʿbān related from some of our scholars that someone who says to a Companion, “You son of two adulterers,” when his mother is a free Muslim woman, is to receive two prescribed punishments, out of respect for the Companion’s inviolability.
The second is al-Shāfiʿī’s position: the accuser incurs the prescribed punishment for each individual, whether he accuses them in a single utterance or separately on different occasions. [The third is Ibn Abī Laylā’s position, which distinguishes between accusing them in a single utterance or on