WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Have you ever noticed that Islamic law prescribes 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:05.900 stoning for some adulterers, while the Quran 00:00:05.900 --> 00:00:09.480 itself speaks of lashes instead? How do Muslims 00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:12.220 explain that tension? Let us start with what 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:15.800 the Quran clearly says. In Surah 24, verse 2, 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.579 in Pickthall's translation, we read that the 00:00:18.579 --> 00:00:21.179 adulterer and the adulteress are to be scourged 00:00:21.179 --> 00:00:24.539 with 100 stripes, and that believers should not 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:27.559 let pity stop them from carrying out this punishment. 00:00:28.170 --> 00:00:30.989 This is a straightforward command to use lashes, 00:00:31.309 --> 00:00:34.850 not stoning. Yet when we turn to the hadith literature, 00:00:35.170 --> 00:00:37.990 we find that Muhammad himself ordered stoning 00:00:37.990 --> 00:00:41.770 for adultery. For example, in Sahih al -Bukhari, 00:00:41.990 --> 00:00:48.070 Book 9, Volume 93, Hadith 633, Ibn Umar reports 00:00:48.070 --> 00:00:51.070 that a Jewish man and woman were brought to Muhammad 00:00:51.070 --> 00:00:54.770 on a charge of illegal sexual intercourse. Muhammad 00:00:54.770 --> 00:00:57.549 asked the Jews what their usual punishment was, 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:00.340 and they said they blackened the faces of the 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:03.420 guilty and disgraced them. He then told them 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:06.200 to bring the Torah and have it recited. When 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:08.319 the reader tried to cover a portion with his 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:12.099 hand, Muhammad told him to lift his hand. Underneath 00:01:12.099 --> 00:01:15.200 was the verse prescribing stoning, the verse 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.120 of Ar -Rajm. The Jewish leaders then admitted 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:21.299 that stoning was the true ruling. Muhammad ordered 00:01:21.299 --> 00:01:24.280 both offenders to be stoned, and they were put 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:27.319 to death by stoning. A similar report appears 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:32.099 in Bukhari, Book 6, Volume 60, Hadith 79. This 00:01:32.099 --> 00:01:34.900 ties in with the Old Testament law, which commands 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:37.560 stoning for adultery in Leviticus chapter 20, 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:40.959 verse 10, and in Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:44.420 24. So why did Muhammad apply the stoning penalty 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:47.959 when the Quran speaks plainly of lashes? Muslim 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:51.030 scholars generally offer two reasons. The first 00:01:51.030 --> 00:01:53.530 possible reason is that Muhammad may have treated 00:01:53.530 --> 00:01:56.209 the Torah as a binding and even higher authority 00:01:56.209 --> 00:01:59.349 in legal matters for the Jews and at times for 00:01:59.349 --> 00:02:04.709 himself. In Surah 5, verses 43 and 44, in Pickthall's 00:02:04.709 --> 00:02:08.030 translation, the Quran asks why the Jews come 00:02:08.030 --> 00:02:11.009 to Muhammad for judgment when they already have 00:02:11.009 --> 00:02:13.810 the Torah in which Allah has delivered judgment 00:02:13.810 --> 00:02:16.889 for them. It then says that Allah revealed the 00:02:16.889 --> 00:02:19.789 Torah in which there is guidance and light. and 00:02:19.789 --> 00:02:22.270 that the prophets, as well as the rabbis and 00:02:22.270 --> 00:02:25.610 priests, judged the Jews by that scripture. It 00:02:25.610 --> 00:02:28.270 says that whoever does not judge by what Allah 00:02:28.270 --> 00:02:31.810 has revealed is a disbeliever. Ibn Ishaq's biography 00:02:31.810 --> 00:02:35.509 of Muhammad gives us a vivid scene. On page 260, 00:02:35.969 --> 00:02:38.449 he reports that the apostle entered a Jewish 00:02:38.449 --> 00:02:41.770 school and called them to God. When they asked 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:44.629 him what his religion was, he replied that his 00:02:44.629 --> 00:02:47.650 religion was the religion of Abraham. They answered 00:02:47.650 --> 00:02:51.340 that Abraham was a Jew, Muhammad then said, Then 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:54.360 let the Torah judge between us. They refused. 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:57.419 This shows that Muhammad himself at one point 00:02:57.419 --> 00:03:00.280 appealed to the Torah as a decisive authority 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:03.539 in disputes. The second reason offered is even 00:03:03.539 --> 00:03:06.419 more directly related to abrogation. There is 00:03:06.419 --> 00:03:08.919 a tradition that a verse commanding stoning for 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:11.840 adultery once formed part of the Quran itself. 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:14.939 According to this view, the verse of stoning 00:03:14.939 --> 00:03:18.189 abrogated the lashing verse. even though the 00:03:18.189 --> 00:03:21.270 stoning verse is no longer found in the Quranic 00:03:21.270 --> 00:03:24.810 text. One important report comes from Sahih Muslim 00:03:24.810 --> 00:03:32.430 . In this narration, Abdullah ibn Abbas relates 00:03:32.430 --> 00:03:35.969 that Umar ibn al -Khattab sat on the pulpit and 00:03:35.969 --> 00:03:38.370 said that Allah sent Muhammad with the truth 00:03:38.370 --> 00:03:41.870 and sent down the book to him, and that the verse 00:03:41.870 --> 00:03:44.349 of stoning was included in what was revealed. 00:03:44.729 --> 00:03:48.240 Umar says that they recited it. memorized it 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:50.840 and understood it, and that the Prophet applied 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:54.039 the punishment of stoning to married adulterers. 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:57.539 Umar then warns that he fears a time will come 00:03:57.539 --> 00:04:00.639 when people will say they do not find stoning 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:03.520 in the Book of Allah and that they will go astray 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:07.159 by abandoning this duty. He insists that stoning 00:04:07.159 --> 00:04:10.419 is a duty laid down in Allah's Book for married 00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:13.300 men and women who commit adultery when there 00:04:13.300 --> 00:04:17.350 is proof, pregnancy, or confession. Another striking 00:04:17.350 --> 00:04:20.370 narration appears in Sunan ibn Majah, number 00:04:20.370 --> 00:04:26.050 1944. There Aisha is reported to have said that 00:04:26.050 --> 00:04:28.889 the verse about stoning adulterers and the verse 00:04:28.889 --> 00:04:32.029 about an adult being made a foster son through 00:04:32.029 --> 00:04:35.649 ten sucklings were revealed. She explains that 00:04:35.649 --> 00:04:38.790 these verses were later abrogated, yet they remained 00:04:38.790 --> 00:04:41.829 written on a document kept under her bed. After 00:04:41.829 --> 00:04:45.110 the Messenger of Allah died, she says, and they 00:04:45.110 --> 00:04:48.170 were occupied with his death and burial, a domestic 00:04:48.170 --> 00:04:50.750 goat entered the house and ate that document. 00:04:51.189 --> 00:04:54.189 This report is translated by Muhammad Mahdi al 00:04:54.189 --> 00:04:58.629 -Sharif in Volume 2, page 204, published by Dar 00:04:58.629 --> 00:05:01.670 al -Khutob al -Ilmiya. Think about what this 00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:04.629 implies. Here we have a verse of stoning that 00:05:04.629 --> 00:05:07.769 Umar calls a duty in the Book of Allah, and Aisha 00:05:07.769 --> 00:05:10.449 says that this text was once written down but 00:05:10.449 --> 00:05:13.199 was physically destroyed by a goat. The verse 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:16.379 that commands lashes for adultery remains in 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:19.720 the Qur 'an. But many jurists argue that its 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:23.199 ruling is abrogated by a lost stoning verse that 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.339 is no longer in the text. Now here is the serious 00:05:26.339 --> 00:05:29.920 theological problem. In Surah 15 verse 9, the 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:33.040 Qur 'an declares that Allah Himself will guard 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:36.300 the reminder, meaning the Qur 'an, from corruption. 00:05:36.970 --> 00:05:39.930 If a verse that supposedly lays down such a serious 00:05:39.930 --> 00:05:43.170 legal penalty can disappear because a goat ate 00:05:43.170 --> 00:05:45.769 the written copy, how does that fit with the 00:05:45.769 --> 00:05:48.589 claim that Allah is the protector of the Quran? 00:05:48.949 --> 00:05:51.930 If the abrogating verse is lost while the abrogated 00:05:51.930 --> 00:05:54.850 verse remains, then the community is left with 00:05:54.850 --> 00:05:58.009 a softer penalty in the text and a harsher penalty 00:05:58.009 --> 00:06:01.250 preserved only in memory and tradition. So we 00:06:01.250 --> 00:06:03.889 are left with some important questions. How can 00:06:03.889 --> 00:06:06.589 a lost verse override a verse that everyone can 00:06:06.589 --> 00:06:09.470 still read? How can the doctrine of abrogation 00:06:09.470 --> 00:06:12.389 allow for an abrogating verse to vanish while 00:06:12.389 --> 00:06:15.670 the abrogated verse remains in the Quran? And 00:06:15.670 --> 00:06:18.029 how can the claim that Allah protects His Book 00:06:18.029 --> 00:06:21.149 be reconciled with reports that key parts of 00:06:21.149 --> 00:06:24.089 it were eaten by an animal? These are not merely 00:06:24.089 --> 00:06:27.290 academic puzzles. They go to the heart of how 00:06:27.290 --> 00:06:30.069 Muslims understand revelation, preservation, 00:06:30.550 --> 00:06:32.689 and authority in their own sources.