Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)

not four witnesses, scourge them (with) eighty stripes and never (afterward) accept their testimony — They indeed are evil-doers —

5. Save those who afterward repent and make amends , (For such) lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

6. As for those who accuse their wives but have no witnesses except themselves; let the testimony of one of them be four testimonies, (swearing) by Allah that he is of those who speak the truth;

7. And yet a fifth, invoking the curse of Allah on him if he is of those who lie.

8. And it shall avert the punishment from her if she bear witness before Allah four times that the thing he saith is indeed false,

9. And a fifth (time) that the wrath of Allah be upon her if he speaketh truth.

10. And had it not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy unto you, and that Allah is Clement, Wise, (ye had been undone).

11. Lo! they who spread the slander are a gang among you. Deem it not a bad thing for you; nay, it is good for you. Unto every man of them (will be paid) that which he hath earned of the sin; and as for him among them who had the greater share therein, his will be an awful doom.

12. Why did not the believers, men and women, when ye heard it, think good of their own folk, and say: It is a manifest untruth?

13. Why did they not produce four witnesses? Since they produce not witnesses, they verily are liars in the sight of Allah.

14. Had it not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy unto you in the world and the Hereafter an awful doom had overtaken you for that whereof ye murmured.

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Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, Consulted online at “Quran Archive - Texts and Studies on the Quran” on 29 Mar. 2024: http://quran-archive.org/explorer/marmaduke-pickthall/1930?page=364