As for the fornicatress and the fornicator that is of those not in wedlock — because those in wedlock are stoned according to the Sunna the al in al-zāniya ‘the fornicatress’ and al-zānī ‘the fornicator’ according to some mentioned opinions is a relative particle; the clause al-zāniyatu wa’l-zānī is a subject and because of its similarity to a conditional the fā’ has been inserted into the predicate which is the following fa’jlidū strike each of them a hundred lashes a hundred strikes one says jaladahu to mean daraba jildahu ‘he struck him on the skin’. According to the Sunna in addition to this punishment there is also banishment for a whole year. The slave however receives half of the mentioned punishment. And do not let any pity for them overcome you in God’s religion that is to say in the fulfilment of His rulings by disregarding any part of their prescribed punishment if you believe in God and the Last Day namely the Day of Resurrection in this statement there is an incitement to abide by what was mentioned before the conditional above and it also constitutes the response to the latter or at least is an indication of the response to it. And let their punishment the flogging be witnessed by a group of the believers — some say that this should be a group of three; some say four as in the number of witnesses testifying to an act of fornication.
