For this reason, the Sunnah teaches that someone upon whom the prescribed punishment or other penalties have been carried out, without the believers being overcome by pity for him, should nevertheless be shown mercy in another respect: he should be treated kindly and supplicated for. This merciful aspect predominates in the Sharia, just as it predominates in the attributes of the Lord, glorified is He. Thus, the two Sahīh collections relate:

“Allah wrote a decree, which is kept with Him above the Throne: ‘My mercy prevails over My wrath.’” Another narration reads: “preceded My wrath.”

He says:

“Tell My servants that I am indeed the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful, and that My punishment is the painful punishment.”

He also says:

“Know that Allah is severe in punishment, and that Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

He thus made mercy an attribute of His, expressed in His most beautiful names. As for torment and punishment, He made them things He brings about, without including them in His names.

This also encompasses Allah’s command to be stern towards the disbelievers and hypocrites. He, Most High, says:

“O Prophet, strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them.”

He also says:

“Do not take My enemies and yours as allies, offering them affection.”

The verses continue until His words in the account of Abraham:

“Until you believe in Allah alone.”

The same applies to the end of Sūrat al-Mujādilah. It is authentically reported in Sahīh Muslim, from al-Hasan, from Hittān ibn ‘Abd Allāh, from ‘Ubādah ibn al-Sāmit, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Take this ruling from me: Allah has now provided a way for them. For a virgin with a virgin: one hundred lashes and exile for a year; for a previously married person with a previously married person: one hundred lashes and stoning.”

The two Sahīh collections also relate, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah and Zayd ibn Khālid, that he