“Except for those who repent thereafter and reform themselves; surely Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (5) And those who accuse their wives but have no witnesses except themselves: the testimony of one of them shall be four testimonies by Allah that he is indeed truthful. (6)”

Regarding His saying, “Except for those who repent thereafter and reform themselves; surely Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful,” the scholars differed over whether the testimony of one who makes a false accusation is accepted after repentance, and over the ruling of this exception. One group held that the testimony of an accuser is rejected merely by his having made the accusation; but if he repents, regrets what he said, and his conduct becomes upright, his testimony is accepted—whether he repents after the prescribed punishment has been carried out upon him or before it. They cited the saying of Allah, exalted is He: “Except for those who repent,” and said that the exception applies both to testimony and to the designation of defiantly disobedient. Thus, after repentance, his testimony is accepted and the description of defiantly disobedient is removed from him.

This is reported from Ibn Abbas and Umar, and it is the view of Sa'id ibn Jubayr, Mujahid, Ata, Tawus, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, Sulayman ibn Yasar, al-Sha'bi, Ikrimah, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, and al-Zuhri. Malik and al-Shafi'i also held this view.

Another group held that the testimony of one upon whom the prescribed punishment for false accusation has been carried out is never accepted, even if he repents. They said that the exception applies to His saying, “They are the defiantly disobedient.” This was the view of al-Nakha'i, Shurayh, and the proponents of legal opinion. They also said that his testimony is not rejected merely by the accusation itself, so long as he has not been subjected to the prescribed punishment.

Al-Shafi'i said: “Before he is punished, he is worse than he is after he has been punished, for prescribed punishments are expiations. So how can they reject his testimony when he is in his better state, yet accept it when he is in his worse state?” Al-Sha'bi held that the prescribed punishment for false accusation is waived by repentance, saying that the exception applies to all of the preceding rulings.

The majority of scholars hold that it is not waived by repentance, unless the person accused pardons him, in which case it is waived—just as retaliation is waived by pardon—but it is not waived by repentance.

If it is asked: If you accept his testimony after repentance, then what is the meaning of His saying, “ever”? It is said: Its meaning is that his testimony is never accepted so long as he persists in his accusation, for the “ever” of each person extends for the period appropriate to his state. Thus it is said, “The testimony of an unbeliever is never accepted,” meaning: so long as he remains an unbeliever. (1)

His saying, exalted is He, “And those who accuse their wives,” means: those who accuse their women of fornication. “But have no witnesses” who can testify to the truth of what they have said, “except themselves,” meaning: other than themselves. “The testimony of one of them shall be four testimonies by Allah that he is indeed truthful.” Hamzah, al-Kisa'i, and Hafs recited “four testimonies” in the nominative case, as the predicate of the subject; that is, the testimony of one of them which averts the prescribed punishment is four testimonies. The others recited it in the accusative case; that is, the testimony of one of them is for him to testify four times by Allah that he is indeed truthful.