The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 339
PT. 18 AN-NŪR CH. 24 الزَّانِي لَا يَنْكِحُ إِلَّا زَانِيَةً اَوْ مُشْرِكَةً (The adulterer (or fornicator. 4 cannot have sexual intercourse but with an fornicatress) or an idolatrous وَ الزَّانِيَةُ لَا يَنْكِحُهَا إِلَّا زَانٍ adulteress (or ج اَوْ مُشْرِك وَحُرِّمَ ذَلِكَ عَلَى woman, and an adulteress or الْمُؤْمِنِينَ fornicatress) none can have sexual intercourse with her but an adulterer (or fornicator) or an idolatrous man. That indeed is forbidden to the believers. 2593 equally impossible to believe that they held diametrically opposed views regarding a most important question of religion. And it is indeed very surprising that in the face of quite clear, unambiguous and unequivocal Divine commandments the view should have been held, of all men by 'Umar and ‘Alī, or by any school of Muslim religious thought that Islam has prescribed stoning to death as punishment for an adulterer. The Quran rejects this view as wholly some untenable. Somewhere misunderstanding must have occurred on the part of a chronicler or narrator of the sayings of the Holy Prophet which has caused all this confusion. It may be of interest to note that the verse has used the words and (and not and as) which suggest a particular class of adulterers and fornicators such as hardened or habitual culprits or those who are lost to all sense of shame and remorse and having thrown all restraint and constraint to the winds indulge in this hideous crime openly. The verse further lays down that the beating of the culprit should not be so severe as to cause his death or break his bone but should hurt only the skin as the word used in the verse signifies and as is implied in 4:26. 2593. Important Words: ينكح لا cannot have sexual intercourse. means, he married the woman; he had sexual relations with her. means, the woman married so she had a husband. signifies the (i) marriage without coitus; (ii) coitus with marriage; (iii) coitus without marriage. 2253 means, the rain mixed with the sub-soil of the earth. ac cubill et means, slumber overcame his eyes (Lane & Aqrab). may الزاني لا ينكح إلا زانية The words have all or one of the following interpretations: (i) a man given to adultery shall not marry but a woman given to the same evil practice. That is to say a wicked man who is not ashamed of freely indulging in adultery and has not repented of his evil ways, can never prevail upon a chaste believing woman to marry him. Only a wicked woman of low moral character like him or an idolatress whose standard of morality