(4–5) “Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to produce four witnesses—flog them with eighty lashes, and never accept their testimony. It is they who are the defiantly disobedient—except those who thereafter repent and mend their ways, for Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
Having emphasized the gravity of the fornicator’s ⦗562⦘ offense (1) by requiring that he be flogged—and likewise stoned if he was previously married—and having forbidden close association or interaction with him in any manner in which a person cannot remain safe from evil, Allah Most High then explained the gravity of attacking people’s honor by accusing them of fornication. He said: “Those who accuse chaste women,” meaning free, chaste women. The same applies to men, with no distinction between the two. The accusation intended here is an accusation of fornication, as indicated by the context. “And then fail to produce,” in support of their accusation, “four witnesses,” meaning upright men who explicitly testify to it, “flog them with eighty lashes,” using a whip of moderate severity that causes pain but is not wielded so excessively as to destroy the offender, for the purpose is discipline, not destruction. This establishes the prescribed punishment for making an unsubstantiated accusation of fornication, provided that the person accused is, as Allah Most High states, chaste and a believer. Accusing someone who is not chaste instead incurs discretionary punishment.
“And never accept their testimony”; that is, they incur another punishment: the accuser’s testimony is inadmissible—even after he has received the prescribed punishment for his accusation—until he repents, as will follow. “It is they who are the defiantly disobedient”; that is, those who have departed from obedience to Allah and whose evil has become great. This is because they violate what Allah has made inviolable, attack the honor of a fellow believer, open the way for people to repeat their allegation, destroy the brotherhood Allah has established among the believers, and desire that sexual immorality become widespread among those who believe. This proves that making such an accusation is one of the major sins.
As for His words, “Except those who thereafter repent and mend their ways, for Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful,” repentance here means that the accuser declares his own accusation untrue and acknowledges that he lied in what he said. He is obliged to declare himself untruthful even if he is certain that it occurred, since he did not produce four witnesses. If the accuser repents, reforms his conduct, and replaces his wrongdoing with good deeds, he is no longer defiantly disobedient. According to the correct view, his testimony is likewise accepted, for Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful: He forgives every sin of those who repent and return to Him. An accuser who fails to produce four witnesses is flogged only if he is not the woman’s husband. If he is her husband, his case is addressed in His words: