a man (1), who says that she is a prostitute and brands the husband “the husband of a whore” (2). This (3) is among the gravest insults that people hurl at one another, so much so that they (4) say [by way of emphasis] (5), “He insulted him with the zāy and the qāf” (6), thereby conveying the severity of his abuse.

As distinct from all other sins, Allah has prescribed a fixed penalty for accusing someone of sexual immorality, because the harm it inflicts upon the accused is unlike that caused by any other accusation (7). If someone were accused of unbelief, he could disprove the accuser by openly professing Islam. This is not so when one is accused of sexual immorality, for he cannot disprove the slanderer by outwardly displaying its opposite: sexual immorality may be concealed and kept secret even while a person outwardly appears to be otherwise. Allah Most High has condemned those who wish to spread it among the believers (8), because spreading it harms and wrongs people and because it tempts people [toward it], since it (9) encourages imitation and emulation. When a person sees that someone else has committed it, he may imitate him. Thus, accusing someone of it involves wrongdoing and obscenity not found in other accusations, because human souls are drawn to it, unlike unbelief and killing, and because disclosing unbelief and killing serves to warn people against