The punishment of stoning appears in all 3 holy books. We are in agreement here.
The Jews and Christians ignore their holy books in that they don't use stoning as punishment.
Would an Islamic state with sharia law use stoning as a punishment?
Yes it would, because we don't pick and choose stuff and play around with our beliefs.
Despite the rajm punishment, you need to understand what factors are required for it to be implemented. Throughout early Islamic history, the punishment was so rare that you could count the number on your fingers - all known cases that I'm aware of, were self confession based (the four witness rule has never been achieved till date).
To give you a brief overview, these are the requirements,
either;
- - Self confession (which has to under no compulsion, it has to be done 4 times, it has to be done under sanity and without any influences such as alcohol or drugs).
- - 4 upright witnesses
Regarding witnesses, the great classical Hanafi jurist (faqih), Imam al-Mawsili (Allah have mercy on him) states:
“It (legal punishment) is established by evidence and confession. Evidence is that four people give testimony against a man and woman that they committed fornication. When they testify (in the courts), the judge (qadhi) will inquire from the witnesses the particulars and details of what took place, the place of incident, the time of incident, and the identity of the woman involved. When they give details of all of this and they state that the woman was unlawful upon the man in every way (to ensure it wasn’t rape), and that they testify the observing of sexual intercourse taking place like they see a Kohl needle entering the Kohl bottle, and the four witnesses are considered upright both privately and publicly, then the judge will give the order for the legal punishment to be enforced upon (both) perpetrators.”
-(See: al-Ikhtiyar li ta’lil al-Mukhtar, 2/312-313)
Furthermore, there’s another factor that makes the “witness” requirement almost impossible to achieve. When it comes to accusing other people of adultery/fornication, there's strong protection, as we find in the Qur’an;
“And those who accuse chaste women [of adultery/fornication] and then do not produce four witnesses — lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. And those are the defiantly disobedient. ” [Qur’an 24:2]
In a hadith we find more significantly;
Narrated Sahl ibn Sa’d: A man came to the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) and confessed before him that he had committed fornication with a woman whom he named. The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) sent for the woman and asked her about it. But she denied that she had committed fornication. So he inflicted the prescribed punishment of flogging on him, and let her go.
- [Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 38, Number 442]
Regarding self-confessions, Islam completely discourages people publicly confessing their sins, especially if it’s adultery/fornication. The following hadith reflects this strongly;
‘Abdullah b. Buraida reported on the authority of his father that Ma’iz b. Malik al-Aslami came to Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) and said : Allah’s Messenger, I have wronged myself ; I have committed adultery and I earnestly desire that you should purify me. He turned him away. On the following day, he (Ma’iz) again came to him and said : Allah’s Messenger, I have committed adultery. Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) turned him away for the second time, and sent him to his people saying: Do you know if there is anything wrong with his mind. They denied of any such thing in him and said: We do not know him but as a wise good man among us, so far as we can judge. He (Ma’iz) came for the third time, and he (the Holy Prophet) sent him as he had done before. He asked about him and they informed him that there was nothing wrong with him or with his mind (ie. He wasn’t a mad man, wasn’t drunk, wasn’t under compulsion). When it was the fourth time, a ditch was dug for him and he (the Holy Prophet) pronounced judgement to carry out the rajm punishment.
- [Sahih Muslim, Book 17, Number 4206]
You can see from the above the Prophet(pbuh) tried to avert the punishment by giving the man amples of opportunities to go away and never come back. But the man remained persistent and kept coming back. In fact, in another hadith version (Muslim, Book 17, Number 4198), the Prophet(pbuh) says; “maybe you only kissed or hugged?” It was only after the person came back again and again (a total of four times, so it’s four confessions) was the rajm punishment pronounced.
And finally, in a very famous hadith, the Prophet(pbuh) said;
The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Keep the Muslims away from punishments as much as possible. If there is any way out for an offender to escape punishment, acquit him. It is better for a judge to make an error in acquittal than in conviction.”
- (Sunan Tirmidhi, no: 1424)
There's also so many other factors, such as the fact that the witnesses have to carry out the punishment, and if any of them back out at any point, then the case is dropped (same thing if any of the witnesses retracts their statement and so on).
Overall, you should get the point. It's near impossible to get stoned for adultery. You're not suppose to do it in the first place, as a Good Muslim, if not that, then think of the punishment at the back of your mind - overall acting as a good deterrent. As a scholar puts it;
Allah Most High says:
“In the law of retaliation there is (saving of) life to you, O you men of understanding.” (Surah al-Baqarah, V: 179)
An example of this which comes to mind is that we see speed cameras being placed on many roads and streets (especially here in the UK!) in order to deter people from speeding in their vehicles. The idea behind these speed cameras is not to catch people speeding, rather to prevent people from speeding and causing accidents. If the aim was to catch people speeding, there would be no warning signs indicating that a camera is present. However, we see that whenever a speed camera is placed, many warnings are given that “beware this road has a speed camera”. Many of the times, the camera is not even in operation, hence, the idea is to stop people speeding rather than catch and punish them.
The same is with the various legal punishments prescribed by Shariah, in that they are prescribed to prevent people from committing unlawful actions and corrupting the society, yet the rules and conditions for a legal punishment to be enforced are so stringent that very rarely would an individual be punished. The legal punishment is considered a deterrent, but if an individual did involve him/herself in some unlawful activity, the objective now is not to get the individual punished rather to save him/her from the punishment.
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=4208&CATE=42
If you do that act, then you're suppose to keep your sins to yourself and repent sincerely to God alone and never do it again.
There's many benefits to deterring fornication/adultery. Check this out;
Pre-marital sex is forbidden in Islam and is considered fornication/zina. So, how does this benefit society/individuals? In many ways, such as less unplanned pregnancies, leading to less abortions/child neglect, less family breakdowns, and potentially less likely to gain STD’s (
you’d be surprised to know that in the US they are thinking of testing teens (some just 10-12 year old) for STD/Drugs) etc. So who would’ve thought that another benefit is that you’d less likely be someone to cheat on your partner?
A recent study came out which show that; Muslims are amongst the least likely people to have pre-marital relations, and thus are amongst the least likely to cheat on their marital partners.
Abstract
Social scientists have long been interested in how cultural and structural characteristics shape individuals’ actions. We investigate this relationship by examining how macro- and micro-level religious effects shape individuals’ reports of premarital and extramarital sex. We look at how identifying with one of the major world religions—Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, or Judaism—and living in a nation with a Muslim culture shape the likelihood of sex outside of marriage. Using hierarchical modeling techniques and cross-national data from the Demographic and Health Surveys,
we find that ever married Hindus and Muslims are less likely to report having had premarital sex than are ever married Jews and Christians, and an earlier age at marriage does not appear to explain the relationship. Married Muslims are also less likely than affiliates of all other religions, except Buddhists, to report extramarital sex. The percentage Muslim within a nation decreases the odds of reports of premarital sex and this relationship is not explained by restrictions on women’s mobility. These findings contribute to research on religion, culture, policy, and health, as well as our understanding of the macro-micro relationship.
Religion and Sexual Behaviors
