Reports differ from Ahmad as to whether flogging accompanies stoning. It is narrated from him that “he is not flogged,” while another narration states that “he is flogged one hundred lashes.” Islam is not a condition for being muḥṣan; thus, a non-Muslim is stoned just as a Muslim is. Freedom, however, is one of the conditions of being muḥṣan. If a slave commits zina, he is not stoned; even if he has a wife, he is flogged fifty lashes.

Sodomy and intercourse with animals are treated as zina, entailing flogging for the unmarried offender and stoning for the muḥṣan. It is narrated from Ahmad that the act itself entails the prescribed penalty for both the unmarried and the muḥṣan. Another narration from Ahmad regarding intercourse with animals states: “There is no fixed penalty, but discretionary punishment applies.”

If an unmarried offender commits zina with a muḥṣan woman, or a muḥṣan offender commits zina with an unmarried woman, the unmarried one is flogged and the muḥṣan one is stoned. If he repeats the zina after the fixed penalty has been carried out, the penalty is carried out again. If he commits zina repeatedly before the penalty is carried out, a single fixed penalty is imposed for all of it.

Zina is established by one of two means: either confession or legally admissible testimony. As for confession, when an adult, sane person voluntarily confesses four times, the fixed penalty becomes obligatory upon him. If the penalty becomes obligatory on the basis of his confession and he retracts it before the penalty is carried out, the penalty is waived.

As for legally admissible testimony, it consists of four upright men testifying against him that they witnessed him commit zina, describing that they saw his penis enter the genital orifice, like a kohl applicator entering a kohl container. If they did not witness it in this manner, their testimony does not constitute valid testimony. One condition of such testimony is that the witnesses appear together when giving it. If they appear separately, they are slanderers and are subject to the fixed penalty. If they testify after some time has passed, their testimony is accepted.

If the witnesses to zina do not complete the number of four, they are slanderers and are subject to the fixed penalty. This is the position explicitly stated by Ahmad.