Those who permitted marriage to a fornicatress cited as evidence what Abu al-Faraj al-Muzaffar ibn Isma‘il al-Tamimi informed us: Abu al-Qasim Hamzah ibn Yusuf al-Sahmi informed us; Abu Ahmad Abd Allah ibn ‘Adi, the hadith master, informed us; al-Hasan ibn Faraj informed us; Amr ibn Khalid al-Harrani informed us; Ubayd Allah informed us, from Abd al-Karim al-Jazari, from Abu al-Zubayr, from Jabir, that a man came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, “O Messenger of Allah, my wife does not fend off the hand of one who touches her.” He said, “Divorce her.” The man said, “But I love her, and she is beautiful.” He said, “Then enjoy her.” In another narration, it reads, “Then keep her” (1).

It is also related that Umar ibn al-Khattab flogged a man and a woman ⦗34/b⦘ for fornication, and sought to unite them in marriage, but the young man refused (2).

“And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses—flog them with eighty lashes, and never accept their testimony thereafter. They are the defiantly disobedient” (4).

Allah, exalted is He, says: “And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses—flog them with eighty lashes.” By accusation, He means accusing someone of fornication. Whoever accuses a legally chaste man or woman of fornication, saying to him or her, “You have committed fornication,” or, “O fornicator,” is liable to eighty lashes if he is free; if he is a slave, he is to receive forty lashes. If the person accused is not legally chaste, then the accuser is subject to a discretionary punishment.

The conditions of legal chastity are five: Islam, sound reason, maturity, freedom, and abstention from fornication. Thus, if someone committed fornication once at the onset of puberty, then repented, improved his conduct, and lived a long life, and someone later accused him of fornication, the prescribed punishment does not apply to the accuser. If the accused admits that he committed fornication, or if the accuser produces four witnesses to his fornication, the prescribed punishment is waived from the accuser, for the punishment he had incurred was that for false accusation, whereas his truthfulness has been established.

His saying, “And those who accuse chaste women,” means: those who accuse free, Muslim, chaste women of fornication. “And then do not produce four witnesses”—who testify to their fornication—“flog them with eighty lashes,” meaning: strike them with eighty lashes. “And never accept their testimony thereafter. They are the defiantly disobedient.”