You wrote that death punishment can be given only in the case of crimes, such as causing corruption in the land and murder. But the verse 5:32 says that it was the law that was imposed on Children of Israel. How can we say that this is the law, still imposed on the Muslims. Furthermore, there are numerous hadith which clearly indicates that there were death penalty for married adulterer/adultress. The evidence in this case is very strong. But can you please explain why you reject the whole lot of hadith? It is highly impossible that all the narrators misunderstood the punishment.

Please explain.

Answer

It is evident from the Qur’an that the directive of Al Ma’idah 5:32 equally applies to Muslims as well because immediately after the verse you referred to, a similar directive is given to Muslims:

The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to spread anarchy (Fasad) in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be banished from the land; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement. (Al Ma’idah 5:33)

Similarly, we also have the following directive from the Qur’an for the punishment of murder among Muslims:

O you who believe! Qisas (retaliation) is prescribed for you in the matter of the murdered; the freeman for the freeman, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female …. . (Al Baqarah 2:178)

As you can see, the verses of Al Ma’idah 5:33 and Al Baqarah 2:178 are inline with the verse Al Ma’idah 5:32. The Qur’an has not allowed killing a person as punishment for any other crime other than the above two (murder or Fasad Fil Ardh ie spreading anarchy). In fact, the appropriate punishment for other crimes (like adultery in Al Noor 24:2) are mentioned by the Qur’an to be other than taking life of the criminal.

Noting the above, the appropriate question would be “why rejecting a clear verse of the Qur’an, that is verse Al Noor 24:2″ rather than “why rejecting ahadith”.

Please also note that those ahadith about the punishment of death for adultery that can be considered as reliable are not rejected by us. According to our understanding, these ahadith are describing the punishment of death for a crime that was considered as Fasad Fil Ardh. These ahadith are therefore inline with the directives of Al Ma’idah 5:32-33.

Hope it answers your querry

UIUK team