That the Verse of Stoning is in the Bible and never was omitted from it we shall show
in another chapter. But in this chapter we are going to make the amazing discovery that it
has been dropped, not from the Bible, but from the Qur'an!
It will be remembered that the penalty incurred by adulterers was first perpetual
imprisonment, as in the verse:
'Shut them (the adulteresses) up within their houses till death
release them, or God makes some way for them' [Suratu'n-Nisa' (iv) 19].
For this penalty there was then substituted another, i.e. a hundred lashes;1
and this again was in turn replaced by stoning. But that Verse of Stoning has gone from
the Qur'an.
If it be argued that the Verse of Stoning was not recorded, when the Qur'an was edited,
only because it could not be testified to by two (or more) witnesses, we will say that the
verse was known to several of the Companions (Ashab) who could and did testify to its
genuineness. We give below some traditions to this effect:
(1) Abu 'Ubaid quotes a tradition coming down from ibn Jaish, saying: 'Ubai said,
"How many verses is the Suratu-'l-Ahzab (xxxiii)?" I said, "Seventy-two or
seventy-three." He said, "It was as long as the Suratu'l-Baqara (ii) and we
used to read in it the Verse of Stoning." I said,
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