In Islam there is no disagreement about stoning (rajm) as the punishment for adultery. The Prophet upon whom be peace, pronounced and carried out rajm upon three married Muslims – one man and two women – and two Jews, a man and a woman (source).

Muslim scholar Mobeen Vaid explains:

‘Firstly, and most simply, is that rajm for zinā has been part of the juristic consensus since the inception of Islam (the Muhammadan variety). There is little debate that it was carried out by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him), the Companions, and Forebears thereafter. It continued to be enforced for centuries after the early generations, with no scholar seriously arguing it as having been misapplied prior to the 20th century. One would, in effect, have to accept that thousands of scholars spanning centuries simply got it wrong on the topic of rajm for zinā, or somehow acted in bad faith.’

‘Secondly, the prophetic traditions concerning rajm are not negligible. The principle reports cited in the Study Quran span dozens of traditions in Bukhārī and Muslim alone, with narrations pronounced by way of thirteen independent Companions of the Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) across the two canonical texts. ‘Alī, ‘Umar, Abū Hurayrah, Jābir, Zayd ibn Khālid, Ibn ‘Abbās, Ibn Mas‘ūd, Ibn Abī ‘Awfa, ‘Ubāda, Buraydah, Jābir ibn Samura, ‘Imrān ibn Ḥusayn, and Abū Sa‘īd al-Khuḍrī all provide rajm accounts, may God be pleased with them.’

‘In other words, the single most authoritative works in the field of prophetic narrations contain a multitude of independent reports about the Prophet (pbuh) having carried out rajm and the Companions fervently defending its place within Islamic jurisprudence.’

‘Ibn Qudāma (Mughnī), al-Bayhaqī (al-Kubrā), Ibn Ḥazm (Marātib al-Ijmā‘), Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr (Istidhkār), Ibn al-Mundhir (al-Awsaṭ) and Māwardī (al-Ḥāwī) cite a consensus on the issue of rajm, with the lone exception of Ibn Qudāma who states that he “is unaware of any discordant [views on rajm] other than the Khārijites” (see Mughnī 3/209).’

This is taken from Mobeen Vaid’s excellent article: The Study Quran: A Review. I had the pleasure of meeting with Mobeen for coffee and stimulating conversation in downtown Chicago a few years ago.

The punishment has been rarely applied in the history of Islam owing to the very strict evidential requirements stipulated by Islamic law, see: E. Ann Black, Hossein Esmaeili and Nadirsyah Hosen (2014), Modern Perspectives on Islamic Law, pp. 222-223.

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What does the Jewish Bible and Jesus say about rajm? 

Stoning is the method of execution mentioned most frequently in the Bible. The crimes punishable by stoning include the following:

Breaking the Sabbath, Numbers 15:32–36
Giving one’s offspring to Molech, Leviticus 20:2-5
Cursing God, Leviticus 24:10–16
Engaging in idolatry, Deuteronomy 17:2–7;
Rebellion against parents, Deuteronomy 21:18-21.
Getting married as though a virgin, when not a virgin, Deuteronomy 22:13–21.
Describing the stoning of those who entice others to apostatise from Judaism, the Bible states:

If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people.  Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

~ Deuteronomy 13:6–10.

The story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery in the Gospel of John 7:53–8:11 often cited as proof that Jesus abrogated rajm is missing from the earliest manuscripts of the gospel. It is not considered by textual critics to have been part of the original gospel of John.

However, in the gospel of Matthew Jesus is portrayed as an upholder of the Jewish Law – not excluding stoning for the Scriptural crimes listed above.

Matthew chapter 23:

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Also:

23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

The implication is that Jesus upheld stoning as the method of execution mentioned most frequently in the Bible.

The Sharia of Islam and the Halakha of Jesus are evidently very similar.

Categories: Bible, Hadith, Jesus, Rajm

Tags: Islam, Rajm