As for the fornicatress and the fornicator, that is, of those not in wedlock — because those [in wedlock] are stoned according to the Sunna (the al [in al-zāniya, ‘the fornicatress’, and al-zānī, ‘the fornicator’] according to some mentioned [opinions] is a relative [particle]; the clause [al-zāniyatu wa’l-zānī] is a subject, and because of its similarity to a conditional, the fā’ has been inserted into the predicate, which is [the following, fa’jlidū]): strike each of them a hundred lashes, [a hundred] strikes (one says jaladahu to mean daraba jildahu, ‘he struck him on the skin’). According to the Sunna, in addition to this [punishment] there is also banishment for a whole year. The slave, however, receives half of the mentioned [punishment]. And do not let any pity for them overcome you in God’s religion, that is to say, in [the fulfilment of] His rulings, by disregarding any part of their prescribed punishment, if you believe in God and the Last Day, namely, the Day of Resurrection: in this [statement] there is an incitement to [abide by] what was [mentioned] before the conditional [above] and it also constitutes the response to the latter, or [at least is] an indication of the response to it. And let their punishment, the flogging, be witnessed by a group of the believers — some say [that this should be a group of] three; some say four, as in the number of witnesses testifying to an act of fornication.