As for confession, the jurists disagreed on two points:
- How many times the confession must be repeated for the ḥadd to become mandatory.
- Whether it is a condition that the confessor not retract his admission until the punishment has been executed.
Regarding the first point, Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī hold that a single confession obligates the ḥadd. This is also the position of Abū Dāwūd, Abū Thawr, al-Ṭabarī, and others.
Abū Ḥanīfah, his associates, and Ibn Abī Laylā maintain that the ḥadd is not due unless the offender confesses four times in succession; the same view is reported from Aḥmad and Isḥāq. Abū Ḥanīfah and his followers further stipulate that the four confessions occur in separate sittings.
Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī base their ruling on the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah and Zayd ibn Khālid in which the Prophet said, “Go early in the morning, O Unays, to this man’s wife. If she confesses, stone her.” She did confess, and he stoned her—no specific number of confessions was mentioned.
The Kufan jurists rely on the report of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet “turned Maʿiz away until he had confessed four times, after which he ordered that he be stoned,” as well as other similar aḥadīth. They argue that narrations mentioning only one, two, or three confessions are abridged; an abridged report, they say, is not evidence against one that preserves the full detail.
The second issue concerns a person who confesses to zinā and then retracts. The majority of scholars accept the retraction, with the exception of Ibn Abī Laylā and ʿUthmān al-Battī. Mālik offers a distinction: if the retraction is based on a plausible doubt, it is accepted; if it is not, two opinions are transmitted from him—the more famous accepts the retraction, while the other does not.
The majority regard the retraction as effective because it is established that the Prophet questioned Maʿiz and others repeatedly in the hope that they would withdraw their confession. Hence those who allow the ḥadd to fall by virtue of retraction do not list continued persistence in the confession as a requisite condition for the penalty.
It is also related that when Maʿiz was being stoned and the stones began to strike him, he fled. The people pursued him and he cried out, “Take me back to the Messenger of Allah!” They nevertheless killed him by stoning. When this was reported to the Prophet, he said, “Why did you not leave him? Perhaps he would repent, and Allah would accept his repentance.”
From this narration al-Shāfiʿī deduced that repentance nullifies the ḥudūd, while the majority dissent. On that view, the absence of repentance would become a third condition for the ḥadd to be carried out.