separate occasions.]
ʿUthmān al-Baththī said: “If someone accuses a group, he receives a separate prescribed punishment for each individual. But if he says to a man, ‘You committed adultery with such-and-such a woman,’ he receives only one prescribed punishment.” He explained: “ʿUmar administered only one prescribed punishment to Abū Bakrah and his companions, without punishing them separately for accusing the woman.” This position is supported by neither analogy nor reasoned consideration, since there is no difference between saying, “That man and that woman are adulterers,” and saying, “That man committed adultery with that woman.”
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The prescribed punishment for slaves who accuse others of adultery is half that for free persons, by analogy with the prescribed punishment for unlawful sexual intercourse. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:
“Once they are married, if they commit sexual immorality, their punishment shall be half that of free women.” [Al-Nisāʾ: 25]
This is the position of Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him—the jurists of the major centres, and most scholars. It is also reported from the caliphs Abū Bakr al-Siddīq, ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, and ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib—may Allah be pleased with them.
It is reported from Ibn Masʿūd that a slave who accuses someone of adultery receives eighty lashes. The rationale of those holding this view is that the punishment for such an accusation is a right belonging to the person accused. Since a Christian incurs the same punishment as a Muslim, a slave must likewise incur the same punishment as a free person, for a Christian is of lower standing than a slave. If a Christian’s punishment is not reduced below eighty lashes because his standing is lower than that of a Muslim, then there is even less reason to reduce a slave’s punishment. Similarly, if a woman is raped, she is entitled to the customary dowry of a woman of her standing, whether her assailant is a free man, a slave, or an unbeliever, because this is her right, just as the prescribed punishment for an accusation of adultery is her right.
Unlawful sexual intercourse is different, because its punishment is a right belonging to Allah Most High, with no right belonging to any created being involved. Its prescribed punishment therefore varies according to status: fifty lashes for a slave, one hundred for a free person, and stoning for someone who has been married. A Christian incurs no punishment unless he commits it openly, in which case he is disciplined for doing so openly, or he is a non-Muslim under Muslim protection, in which case he is referred back to his own religion.
By my life, those who prescribe eighty lashes for a slave who accuses someone of adultery, just as they do for a free person, certainly have the stronger argument by analogy. Nevertheless, the great majority of scholars hold that a slave receives forty lashes for such an accusation, by analogy with the prescribed punishment for unlawful sexual intercourse. This was also the position of the rightly guided caliphs. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs. Hold fast to it with your molar teeth.”