Stoning verse

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The stoning verse ( Arabic آية الرجم āyat ar-radschm , DMG āyat ar-raǧm ) is said to have originally been part of Sura 33 of the Koran and provides for the stoning of married adulterers . The stoning verse was possibly originally intended to become part of the Koran, as the punishment provided and practiced in the verse wasretainedas Sunna in Islamic law. This verse does not appear inthe official Koran text, the composition of which is attributed to the third caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (644–656).

Wording and translation

The stoning verse is in the Arabic original:

« الشَّيْخُ وَالشَّيْخَةُ إِذَا زَنَيَا فَارْجُمُوهُمَا الْبَتَّةَ نَكَالًا مِنَ اللهِ وَاللهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ »

"Aš-šaiḫu wa-š-šaiḫatu iḏā zanayā fa-rǧumūhumā l-battata nakālan mina Llāhi wa-Llāhu ʿazīzun ḥakīmun"

The translation is:

“If an old man and an old woman commit fornication, they will definitely stone them as God's punishment. And God is good and wise. "

Reports of the existence of the stoning verse

The existence of the stoning verse is reported in several traditions. Ibn Ishāq explains in his biography of the Prophet Mohammed that ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb mentioned that in the Book of God stoning is the punishment for married men and women who committed fornication (i.e. adultery). Evidence must be provided or there must be a pregnancy or a confession.

In the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal there are two traditions according to which the Kufic Koran scholar Zirr ibn Hubaisch (st. 702) reported that Muhammad's scribe Ubaiy ibn Kaʿb told him that Sura 33 originally not only comprised 73 verses, but was like that was as extensive as sura 2 . In this original form the sura also contained the stoning verse.

The Sahih Muslim, the collection of hadiths by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj , traces the verse back to Umar. He said that the verse was originally part of the Koran. He saw Mohammed being stoned and they stoned after him. Evidence or pregnancy or confession therefore had to be present in order to be able to carry out the sentence.

There is also a tradition that goes back to A'isha , according to which the stoning verse was one of those verses that was lost after the death of the prophet. A goat came into the room and ate the leaves on which the verse was written. This verse prescribed stoning as a punishment for fornication.

As-Suyuti also reports on the controversy about the stoning verse. He explains that Zaid b. Thabit refused to include the verse in the canonical version, since only Umar testified it and names three different variants of this verse.

Judgment in Western Science

It is doubted in western science that the stoning verse was originally part of the Koran. It is believed that he was supposed to legitimize the practice of stoning afterwards. Theodor Nöldeke was of the opinion that this verse could "neither have been part of sura 33 - because of the different rhyme - nor of the Qoran in general, since that cruel criminal law provision [...] can only be introduced after the death of Muhammad".

literature

  • Joseph Schacht : sv Zinā ' . In: AJ Wensinck, JH Kramers (Hrsg.): Short dictionary of Islam . Brill, Leiden 1941, p. 826-827 .
  • Friedrich Schwally : About the origin of the Qoran . In: Theodor Nöldeke (ed.): History of the Qorans . 2nd Edition. Part I. Dieterich, Leipzig 1909.
  • Alfred Guillaume : Islam . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1954.

Web links

Wikisource: The Verse of Stoning in the Bible and the Qur'an  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from: Friedrich Schwally : About the origin of the Qoran . In: Theodor Nöldeke (ed.): History of the Qorans . Part I. Dieterich, Leipzig 1909, p. 248 .
  2. ↑ Extensive references in Friedrich Schwally : About the origin of the Qoran . In: Theodor Nöldeke (ed.): History of the Qorans . Part I. Dieterich, Leipzig 1909, p. 248, footnote 1 .
  3. ^ Alfred Guillaume: The Life of Muhammad. A translation of Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah . Oxford University Press, London 1955, pp. 684 .
  4. ↑ Cf. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: Musnad . Ed. Šuʿaib al-Arnāʾūṭ et al. Muʾassasat ar-Risāla, Beirut, 1999. Vol. XXXV, pp. 133f. No. 21206-21207. Digitized
  5. ↑ Friedrich Schwally: About the origin of the Qoran . In: Theodor Nöldeke (ed.): History of the Qorans . Part I. Dieterich, Leipzig 1909, p. 250 .
  6. ↑ This tradition can be read here in the original language Sahih Muslim No. 3201
  7. ^ Alfred Guillaume: Islam . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1954, pp. 191 .
  8. ↑ Also in Ahmad ibn Hanbal : Musnad . tape 6 . al-Maktab al-Islāmī, Beirut 1969, p. 269 .
  9. ↑ Abū al-Qāsim ibn ʻAlī Akbar Khūʼī: Prolegomena to the Qur'an . Oxford University Press, New York 1998, ISBN 0-19-511675-5 , pp. 139 .
  10. ^ F. Buhl: sv AL-Kur'AN . In: AJ Wensinck, JH Kramers (Hrsg.): Short dictionary of Islam . EJ Brill, Leiden 1976.
  11. ↑ Friedrich Schwally: About the origin of the Qoran. In: Theodor Nöldeke (ed.): History of the Qorans. Part II, 2nd edition, Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1919, p. 45