for the infliction of the punishment of flogging; he was only required to take off thick clothes such as would ward off the stroke altogether. According to a report of Ibn Mas‘ūd, baring the back for flogging is forbidden among the Muslims, and according to Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad, a shirt or two must be left over the body.16 It is further related that it is preferable to give the strokes on different parts of the body so that no harm should result to any one part, but the face and the private parts must be avoided.17

Stoning to death in Jewish law

As already shown, stoning to death, as a punishment for adultery, is nowhere spoken of in the Holy Qur’ān; on the other hand, the injunction to halve the punishment in certain cases is a clear indication that stoning to death was never contemplated as the punishment of adultery in the Holy Book. In Ḥadīth, however, cases are met with in which adultery was punished with stoning to death. One of these cases is expressly mentioned as that of a Jewish couple: “The Jews came to the Holy Prophet with a man and a woman from among them who had committed adultery; and by his order they were stoned to death near the place where funeral services were held” (Bu. 23:61). Further explanation of this incident is given in another report where it is stated that when the Jews referred the case to him, he enquired of them what punishment the Torah prescribed in case of adultery. The Jews tried at first to conceal the fact that it was stoning to death, but on ‘Abd Allāh ibn Salām giving the reference,18 they admitted it, and the guilty persons were dealt with as prescribed in Torah (Bu. 61:26). According to a third version, which is the most detailed, the Jews who desired to avoid the severer punishment of stoning for adultery said one to another: “Let us go to this Holy Prophet, for he has been raised with milder teaching; so if he gives his decision for a milder punishment than stoning, we will accept it.” It is then related that the Holy Prophet went with them to their midrās (the house in which the Torah was read), and asked them what punishment was prescribed in their sacred book. They tried to conceal it at first but the truth had to be admitted at last, and the Holy Prophet gave his decision saying: “I give my judgment according