Chapter: The Ruling on Qadhf (False Accusation)

Whoever levels a charge of fornication or sodomy against a free, adult, sane Muslim is subject to the ḥadd of eighty lashes, provided the accuser himself is a free, adult Muslim of sound mind. If the slanderer is a slave, he receives forty lashes. If he is a disbeliever, the ruler inflicts on him a discretionary punishment severe enough to scatter his peers and serve as a deterrent. Some jurists, however, have maintained that the unbelieving slave should be lashed forty times and the free unbeliever eighty.