A married one who committed adultery (muhshan), should be stoned to death, as the Prophet -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- had stoned Ma’iz Ibn Malik al Aslam, al Ghamidiyya, 2 Jewish men, and other than them; also as muslims had done the stoning after him. The scholars held different opinion, whether or not the perpetrator should be lashed for 100 times before got stoned? There were two opinions regarding this case, according to madzhab of Imam Ahmad and others. If the perpetrator was not married, then he should be punished 100 times lashed according to the Divine Book, and exiled for a year according to the sunnah, although some scholars did not consider that the exile was compulsory to carry out.
The stoning would not be accomplished until there were 4 persons bore witnesses of the deed, or the perpetrator himself bore witness against himself with four testimonies, according to majority of the scholars. Some of them considered a single testimony for himself was enough. But if he admitted his indecent act, then drew his testimony, some scholars said that his punishment should be cancelled, while the rest considered that it shouldn’t.
Muhshan is a free man who is obliged with obligations in shari’a, and ever slept with a woman he had married before, although just for once. Now, is the woman whom he slept with should be equal to him in those attributes? And is a teenager who is entering his puberty considered as a muhshan, or not?
As for the ahl dzimmah (the protected non muslim), they were mushan too according to majority of the scholars, such as Shafi’i, and Ahmad. Thus the Prophet -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- stoned two jewish man beside the door of the mosque, and it was the beginning of stoning punishment in Islam.
The scholars also disagreed about the pregnant woman, who has no husband nor master (if she was a slave-girl), and there was no vagueness on that pregnancy. There were two opinions in madzhab of Imam Ahmad and others regarding this matter. Some said, there was no hadd (legal) punishment for her, since it was possible for her to get pregnant by rape, or due to various possibilities, or due to a vague intercourse. Some other said, she must be punished. And this was the opinion recorded from the four caliphs, and it was closer to the principles of shari’a, and it was also the stance of the dwellers of Medina; since the various possibilities were rare thus need not be considered, such as the possibility of her telling lies or the witnesses telling lies about her.
As for liwath (i.e, homosexual and lesbian), some scholars opined that their punishment resembled punishment of adultery, but some also said it was not, and the correct stance in this matter was: Both person should be killed, the perpetrator and the victim, or in other case, his or her partner, whether he or she was a mushan or not. The authors of sunan book had narrated from Ibn Abbas -may Allah be pleased with him-, from the Prophet -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him-, he said,
“”Whoever you found committing the act of the people of Lot, then kill the culprit and his partner.”
Abu Daud narrated Ibn Abbas -may Allah be pleased with him- who was caught doing lesbianism. He said that she must be stoned, and the similar story were recorded from Ali Inn Abi Thalib.
The scholars did agree about the killing as their punishment; however, they disagreed about how to kill them. It was narrated from Ash Shiddiq -may Allah be pleased with him- that he ordered people to burn them. Others said that they might be put under collapsing rock, causing them to be squeezed to death underneath the ruins. Some also said, they should be locked in the most terrible place until their death. The others said, they should be placed on the highest wall of the village, then thrown from it along with stoning, as Allah did to the people of Lot. This is the narration from Ibn Abbas, -may Allah be pleased with him-. As for other narration, it was said that they were stoned. This is the opinion of most of the past time scholars, they said, “Since Allah had stoned the people of Lot, and he commanded to stone the adulterer, the punishment should be similar to what had afflicted the people of Lot. Both were stoned, whether they were free men or slave, or one of them free and the other is slave, if they had reached maturity. If one of them was not reach that age, then he or she should be punished with punishment other than being killed, since the stoning is only for adults.
Source: Fatwa Collection of Ibn Taimiyya, by Sheikh al Islam Ibn Taimiyya, Publihed bu Darul Haq,
Article of www.whatisquran.com