Stoning for Allah

Replacing Mercy with Misery

Why Islam’s Harshest Penalty Never Came from God

There’s a reason most Muslims feel uncomfortable discussing it —
Death by stoning.
The slow, brutal execution of a human being, crushed under rocks.

Islamic law prescribes it.
Hadith collections endorse it.
Classical jurists defend it.

But here’s the truth they won’t say out loud:
Stoning isn’t justice. It’s torture.
And worse — it never came from the Qur’an at all.

Let’s dismantle the myth.

1. The Qur’an Says Lashes — Not Stones

The Qur’an prescribes a punishment for adultery:

Q 24:2 – “The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication — lash each of them 100 times.”

Crystal clear. Lashes — not death.
No stoning. No execution. No buried torsos and thrown rocks.

So where does stoning come from?

→ Hadith.
→ Fiqh manuals.
→ Invented narratives hundreds of years later.

In fact, early Muslim scholars admitted the tension:

  • Umar ibn al-Khattab claimed a verse about stoning existed but was “lost” — a convenient excuse to override the Qur’an with hadith.

Let that sink in: Islam’s harshest punishment is based on a missing verse and a contradiction of revelation.

2. The Hadith Horror Show

The hadith canon paints a grotesque picture of “divine” punishment:

Sahih Muslim 1691 – A woman confesses adultery. Muhammad has her stoned — after childbirth. She dies under rocks.

Sahih Bukhari 6814 – A man and woman confess. Muhammad orders their stoning. People carry it out immediately.

The result?
No trial.
No investigation.
Just public execution, often praised as pious.

And this horror became sacred precedent.

→ Al-Muwatta, Hidayah, Reliance of the Traveller — all uphold it.
→ Even some modern Islamic states still use it — from Iran to parts of Nigeria.

Not because the Qur’an demands it — but because the jurists insisted the Messenger did.

3. From Mercy to Misery — How Fiqh Reversed Divine Compassion

The Qur’an constantly speaks of mercy, forgiveness, and repentance:

Q 39:53 – “Say, O My servants who have transgressed… despair not of the mercy of Allah.”

But in classical fiqh?
Confession equals death.
Repentance doesn’t save you.
And if you deny guilt? They may stone you anyway if there are “four witnesses.”

Islamic legal theory mutated divine mercy into mandatory torture.

This isn’t sacred. This is medieval cruelty wrapped in a religious label.

4. “It’s Rare!” — The Apologist’s Evasion

Muslim reformers argue:

“It’s only applied with four eyewitnesses. So it's almost never used!”

That doesn’t make it just. That makes it sadistic in theory and useless in practice.

→ You don’t defend slavery by saying most people weren’t whipped.
→ You don’t defend torture by saying it’s rarely applied.

A punishment can be evil even if it’s rare.

And here’s the irony:
The bar for stoning is “high,” but confession is enough — and classical jurists encouraged it as a way to “purify” yourself before death.

That’s not justice. That’s religious coercion turned fatal.

5. Why Would God Want This?

Ask the question they’re afraid to answer:

Why would a merciful God want human beings to throw stones at another human being until they die?

→ Why would a just God prescribe something the Qur’an doesn’t?
→ Why would God’s “perfect law” mirror ancient tribal customs of revenge?
→ Why would any society built on compassion bury people in the ground and kill them with rocks?

The answer?
God didn’t prescribe it. The state did.
The jurists did. The empire did.

They needed tools to punish, deter, and dominate.
Stoning became sacred — not because it was moral — but because it was useful.

Final Thought: Stoning Is the Religion of Power, Not of God

When divine mercy is replaced with man-made violence, what you’re left with isn’t revelation — it’s regime.

Stoning didn’t descend from the sky.
It rose from the courts of caliphs and the minds of men.
It’s not from God.
It’s from the architects of fear, control, and submission — all using “the Prophet” as cover.

Next Post:
“Slavery, Rape, and Sacred Permission”
What happens when conquest, sex, and ownership are sacralized by scripture? We go deep into how Sharia doesn’t just permit exploitation — it canonizes it.

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