Ibn Abbas said: The Quranic verse goes: “If any of your woman are guilty of lewdness, take the evidence of four (reliable) witnesses from amongst you against them, and if they testify, Confine them to houses until death do chain them or Allah ordains for them some (other) way. Allah then mentioned man after woman and combined them in another verse: “If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, leave them alone. This command was abrogated by the verse relating to flogging: “The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication – flog each of them with one hundred stripes.

Mujahid said: “Apponting a way in the verse (iv. 15) means prescribed punishment. Sufiyan said: “Punish them “refers to unmarried, and “confine them to houses” refers to the women who are married.

Ubadah bin al-Samit reported the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as sayings: Receive my teachings, receive my teachings. Allah has appointed a way for those women. If the parties have been married, they shall receive a hundred lashes and stoned to death. If the parties are unmarried, they shall receive a hundred lashes and banished for a year.

A similar tradition has been transmitted by al-Hasan through a chain of Yahya and to the same effect. This version adds: They shall receive a hundred lashes and toned to death.

Narrated Ubadah ibn as-Samit: The tradition mentioned above (No. 4401) has also been transmitted by Ubadah ibn as-Samit through a different chain of narrators. This version has: The people said to Saad ibn Ubadah: Abu Thabit, the prescribed punishments have been revealed: if you find a man with your wife, what will you do? He said: I shall strike them with a sword so much that they become silent (i. e. die). Should I go and gather four witnesses? Until that (time) the need would be fulfilled. So they went away and gathered with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said: Messenger of Allah! did you not see Abu Thabit. He said so-and-so. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: The sword is a sufficient witness. He then said: No, no, a furious and a jealous man may follow this course. Abu Dawud said: This tradition has been transmitted by Waki from al-Fadl bin Dilham from al-Hasan, from Qabisah bin Huraith, from Salamah bin al-Muhabbaq, from the Prophet ﷺ. And this is the chain of the tradition narrated by Ibn al-Muhabbaq to the effect that a man had sexual intercourse with a slave girl of his wife. Abu Dawud said: Al-Fadl bin Dilham was not the memoriser of traditions. He was a butcher in Wasit.

Abdullah bin Abbas said: Umar bin al-Khattab gave an address saying: Allah sent Muhammad ﷺ with truth and sent down the Books of him, and the verse of stoning was included in what He sent down to him. We read it and memorized it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had people stoned to death and we have done it also since his death. I am afraid the people might say with the passage of time: We do not find the verse of stoning in the Books of Allah, and thus they stray by abandoning a duty which Allah had received. Stoning is a duty laid down (by Allah) for married men and women who commit fornication when proof is established, or if there is pregnancy, or a confession. I swear by Allah, had it not been so that the people might say: Umar made an addition to Allah’s Book, I would have written it (there).