Page 150 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger
P. 150
Bigotry:
The Dark Danger
The punishment with 80 lashes of those who are unable to
produce witnesses to their allegations of adultery is also a highly
deterrent pronouncement. Another verse says that people who
accuse a woman of adultery but are unable to back this up with wit-
nesses will be regarded as liars in the Sight of God:
Why did they not produce four witnesses to it? Since they did not
bring four witnesses, in God's Sight, they are liars. (Qur'an, 24:13)
As we have seen, the person who is unable to produce witness
is himself accused of lying and defamation. Therefore, the only valid
means of knowing whether or not the person is telling the truth is the
presence of four witnesses to the adultery. There is simply no other
way his words can be valid.
Vasily Polenov's oil painting titled
"Jesus and the Woman Taken in
Adultery," 1888
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