Bigotry: The Dark Danger

The Killing of People Who Commit Adultery

John William Waterhouse's oil painting “Thisbe,” 1909

False hadiths on the practice of stoning to death were fabricated in order to include the commandment of the Torah about the stoning of adulterers in Islam and to justify such a revolting practice.

Slay those who commit adultery. (1623-Tirmidhi, 1601)

In case of married male committing adultery with a married female, they shall receive one hundred lashes and be stoned to death. (Sahih Muslim, Book 17, Hadith 4191)

These false hadiths were invented in order to make the stoning of people who commit adultery, which appears in the Torah, also part of Islam and to attempt to justify this barbaric practice. Some supposed scholars have even gone so far as to fabricate other false hadiths in order to have the fabrication in question included in the hadith literature. These hadiths, a few examples of which are set out below, are full of slanders aimed against our Prophet (pbuh), the Caliphs and the Companions for the sake of justifying the practice of stoning to death: 

(Narrated 'Aisha) "The verse of the stoning and of suckling an adult ten times were revealed, and they were (written) on a paper and kept under my bed. When the Messenger of God expired and we were preoccupied with his death, a goat entered and ate away the paper." (Musnad Ahmad bin Hanbal, vol. 6. p. 269; Sunan Ibn Majah, p. 626; Ibn Qutbah, Tawil Mukhtalafi 'l-Hadith  (Cairo: Maktaba al-Kulliyat al-Azhariyya. 1966) p. 310;  As-Suyuti, ad-Durru 'l-Manthur, vol. 2. p. 13)

Umar wanted to place the verse about stoning to death that the goat had eaten back in the Qur’an; but he was afraid of public gossip and refrained from doing so. (Sahih Bukhari 53/5; 54/9; 83/3; 93/21;
Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Hudud 8/1431; Sunan Abu Dawud 41/1; Itkan 2/34)

'Abdullah b. 'Abbas reported that 'Umar b. Khattab sat on the pulpit of God's Messenger (pbuh) and said: Verily God sent Muhammad (pbuh) with truth and He sent down the Book upon him, and the verse of stoning was included in what was sent down to him. We recited it, retained it in our memory and understood it. God's Messenger (pbuh) awarded the punishment of stoning to death (to the married adulterer and adulteress) and, after him, we also awarded the punishment of stoning, I am afraid that with the lapse of time, the people (may forget it) and may say: We do not find the punishment of stoning in the Book of God, and thus go astray by abandoning this duty prescribed by God. Stoning is a duty laid down in God's Book for married men and women who commit adultery when proof is established, or if there is pregnancy, or a confession. (Sahih Muslim, Book 17, Hadith 4194; Sahih Bukhari, Book 82, Hadith 816)

Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah As-Salami: ... When we reached Medina, Umar (in a Friday sermon) said, "No doubt, God sent Muhammad with the Truth and revealed to him the Book (Quran), and among what was revealed, was the Verse of Ar-rajm (stoning adulterers to death)." (Sahih Bukhari, Book 92, Hadith 424)

Let us examine the above hadiths that are full of countless slanders against the Qur’an, our Prophet (pbuh) and the Companions: God explicitly states in verses that the Qur’an is a Book under Divine protection:

It is We Who have sent down the Reminder and We Who will preserve it. . (Qur'an, 15:9)

It truly is a Noble Qur’an in a well protected Book.(Qur'an, 56:77-78)

Its collection and recitation are Our affair. (Qur'an, 75:17)

The penalty of stoning to death applied in countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia under the name of “Islamic Sharia,” is both a violation of Islam and the Qur'an and murder. The picture to the side shows stoning in Iran.

First of all, God has explicitly stated that He is the protector of the Qur’an and that it is He Who brought the verses of the Qur’an together and preserves them. We learn from the Qur’an itself that it, the final revelation sent down, is under Divine protection. Since the Qur’an is the Final Book, it will be instrumental in people finding salvation until the Day of Reckoning so the final revelation is placed under the protection of God.

Our Lord reveals this to our Prophet (pbuh) with the verse “We will cause you to recite so that you do not forget.” (Qur'an, 87:6). As revealed by this verse, God never allowed our Prophet (pbuh) to forget any verse that has been read to him. It is therefore impossible for there to be any forgotten or deficient verses in the Qur’an. As to the idea of the goat eating the verse in question, the claim is that a verse found its way out of the Qur’an, a Book which God describes as being preserved and well-protected, or to put it another way, may God forbid, that God was unable to protect the verse (surely God is beyond that). Rejecting the verses in question means doubting God and thus departing from the faith.

Moreover, the Caliph Umar (ra) is also blatantly slandered with fabricated hadiths. It is slanderously alleged that Umar knows a pronouncement that is not in the Qur’an, that he announces it as a verse from the pulpit of Medina despite its not being in the Qur’an, and that the Companions make no objection, yet Hazrat Umar does not include it in the Qur’an because he is supposedly afraid of gossip.

There is no doubt that it is absolutely impossible for the Caliph of our Prophet (pbuh) to say of a pronouncement that does not appear in the Qur’an that “It actually was in the Qur’an.” That would mean Umar denying the fact that the Qur’an is a well-protected Book, and that would mean him denying God’s word (surely Hazrat Umar is beyond that). Umar is being horribly and enormously defamed through these false hadiths.

It is also a terrible slander of the Companions to suggest that they made no objection to a statement in a sermon that a verse of the Qur’an was not protected. It is quite clear that the Companions would have strongly objected to such a claim and immediately have pointed to counter-evidence from the Qur’an.

Another ugly slander of Umar through the false hadiths in question is the allegation that he failed to declare a pronouncement that he thought actually formed part of the Qur’an because he was afraid of gossip. This shows how perverse and horrible the view of God, our Prophet (pbuh), the Caliphs and the Companions adopted by false scholars who fabricate hadiths truly is; Hazrat Umar is an immaculate Muslim who took our Prophet (pbuh) as his role model, lived his whole life for God, faced many difficulties for His sake and who even risked death because of his faith in God and protection of our Prophet (pbuh) and the Qur’an. To say that this superior and blessed person who never feared any criticism, death, battle or threats throughout his life, failed to declare a verse that had been removed from the Qur’an because he was merely afraid of gossip is the foul and slanderous product of a mind that has nothing to do with Islam.

In addition to all that, the pronouncement regarding adultery is set out in quite some detail in the Qur’an, and there is absolutely no place in it for the savagery known as stoning to death, or rajm. If the subject of stoning were in the Qur’an, as the supposed scholars in question suggest, then how could there be two very different pronouncements on the subject of adultery? There could not, of course, and this is just further evidence of fraud.

Now let us set out the only valid pronouncement of our Lord in the Qur’an on the subject of adultery through verses:

The claim the fanatics make by means of fabricated hadiths, that a goat ate the verse about adultery, implies that, may God forbid, God was unable to protect the verse (surely God is beyond that). That is equivalent to rejecting the verses in question, doubting the word of God and abjuring the faith.