“Do you offer the funeral prayer for her, Messenger of Allah, even though she has committed fornication?”—and fornication is one of the gravest sins. He answered, “She has repented with a repentance which, were it divided among seventy of the people of Madinah, it would suffice them all. And can you imagine anything finer than her having given up her very self for Allah?” That is, can you think of a state better than this woman’s? She came forward and surrendered herself solely to draw nearer to Allah and to free herself from the burden of adultery—nothing could surpass that.

This narration points to many rulings and benefits.

Among them: when the fornicator is muḥṣan—that is, previously married—the penalty of stoning is obligatory. This ruling was once contained in a verse of the Book of Allah which the Muslims used to recite, memorize, comprehend, and implement. The Prophet ﷺ carried it out, and so did the caliphs after him. By His wisdom, however, Allah abrogated its wording from the Qur’an while keeping its ruling in force for this ummah. Thus, if a muḥṣan commits adultery, he is to be stoned until death. He is placed in an open area, the people gather, and they pelt him with stones until he dies.

This reflects Allah’s wisdom: the Sacred Law did not prescribe execution by the sword—bringing matters to an immediate close—but rather stoning with medium-sized stones so that the offender tastes the torment and experiences pain commensurate with the illicit pleasure he pursued. Adultery involves the entire body in forbidden pleasure, so it is only fitting that the entire body taste a corresponding measure of punishment.

For that reason the scholars—may Allah have mercy on them—have said that it is impermissible to stone with very large rocks, because such stones would kill the person quickly and he would find relief, and it is likewise impermissible