A single confession is sufficient, and the repetition mentioned in various incidents was only for the purpose of verifying the crime.
The arguments are as follows:
➊ There is a Prophetic hadith:
واغد يا أنيس إلى امرأة هذا فإن اعترفت فارجمها
“O Anis! Go to his wife in the morning, and if she confesses (to adultery), then stone her.”
[Bukhari: 2147, Book of Agency: Chapter on Agency in Hudood]
➋ The woman named Ghamid was stoned by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ upon her single confession.
[Muslim: 1695, Book of Hudood: Chapter on One Who Confesses to Adultery]
➌ Khalid bin Lajlāj narrates from his father that the Prophet ﷺ stoned a man upon his single confession.
[Hasan: Sahih Abu Dawood: 3728, Book of Hudood: Chapter on Stoning Ma’iz bin Malik, Abu Dawood: 4435, Ahmad: 379/3]
➍ A woman claimed that a man forcibly committed adultery with her, so the Prophet ﷺ ordered her to be stoned. Then another man stood up and confessed that he had committed adultery. The Prophet ﷺ told the woman, “Go, Allah has forgiven you,” and dismissed the first man with kind words, then ordered the one who confessed to be stoned.
[Hasan: Sahih Tirmidhi: 1175, Book of Hudood: Chapter on a Woman Who Was Forced into Adultery, Tirmidhi: 1454, Weak Tirmidhi: 243, Abu Dawood: 4379, Bayhaqi: 284/8, Shaykh al-Albani رحمه الله declared the hadith authentic except for the last ruling of stoning.]
(Abu Hanifa, Ahmad) Four confessions of adultery are required, otherwise the hudood punishment will be dropped.
(Shafi’i, Malik) One confession is sufficient.
[Al-Umm by Shafi’i: 133/6, Al-Mabsut: 91/9, Al-Mughni: 354/12]
(Siddiq Hasan Khan) One confession is sufficient.
[Al-Rawdah al-Nadiyyah: 580/2]
(Nawawi) The questions asked by the Prophet ﷺ to Ma’iz Aslami were only for investigation and inquiry.
[Sharh Muslim: 215/6]
(Shawkani) One confession is sufficient. The hadiths mentioning that the Prophet ﷺ repeatedly questioned Ma’iz Aslami were only for the purpose of investigation. These questions were not to establish that repetition is a condition. If that were the case, the Prophet ﷺ would never have stoned the Ghamidiya woman upon a single confession.
[Nil al-Awtar: 545/4]
(Rajih) Imam Shawkani’s position is correct because if four confessions were a condition, the Prophet ﷺ would have practiced it himself and ordered it. The questions asked to Ma’iz Aslami by the Prophet ﷺ were as follows:
➊ هل بك جنون؟
“Are you insane?”
[Bukhari: 5271, Book of Divorce: Chapter on Divorce in Cases of Locking, Coercion, Intoxication, and Insanity]
➋ أشرب خمرا؟
“Has he been drinking alcohol?”
[Muslim: 1695, Book of Hudood: Chapter on One Who Confesses to Adultery]
➌ لعلك قبلت أو غمزت أو نظرت؟
“Perhaps you kissed or gestured or merely looked?”
[Bukhari: 6824, Book of Hudood: Chapter on Whether the Imam Says to the Confessor: Maybe You Touched or Winked, Ahmad: 238/1]
Four witnesses are necessary, and it is also necessary that the confession and testimony explicitly state penetration from one private part into another.
➊ Allah Almighty says:
وَاللَّاتِي يَأْتِينَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مِن نِّسَائِكُمْ فَاسْتَشْهِدُوا عَلَيْهِنَّ أَرْبَعَةً مِّنكُمْ ۖ فَإِن شَهِدُوا فَأَمْسِكُوهُنَّ فِي الْبُيُوتِ حَتَّىٰ يَتَوَفَّاهُنَّ الْمَوْتُ أَوْ يَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ لَهُنَّ سَبِيلًا [An-Nisa: 15]
“Those of your women who commit lewdness, take four witnesses from among you against them; and if they testify, confine them to houses until death takes them or Allah ordains for them some way.”
➋ In another verse:
وَالَّذِينَ يَرْمُونَ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاءَ ………….. الخ [An-Nur: 4]
“And those who accuse chaste women and do not produce four witnesses—lash them eighty lashes and never accept their testimony, for they are the defiantly disobedient.”
➊ The Prophet ﷺ asked Ma’iz Aslami for complete investigation:
لعلك قبلت أو غمزت أو نظرت
“Perhaps you kissed or fondled or merely looked?”
He said, “No, O Messenger of Allah! You asked, ‘Did you have intercourse with her?’ You were not speaking figuratively.” He answered affirmatively, then he was ordered to be stoned.
[Ahmad: 238/1, Bukhari: 6824, Abu Dawood: 4427]
➋ Hazrat Abu Huraira رضي الله عنه said that when Ma’iz Aslami رضي الله عنه came to the Prophet ﷺ, he confessed to adultery four times, and the Prophet ﷺ turned away four times. When he confessed the fifth time, the Prophet ﷺ asked, “Did you have intercourse with her?” He said yes. Then the Prophet ﷺ asked:
كما يغيب المرود فى المكحلة والرشاء فى البثر
“Like the needle in the kohl container and the rope in the well?”
He said yes, then he was ordered to be stoned.
[Weak: Weak Abu Dawood: 952, Book of Hudood: Chapter on Stoning Ma’iz bin Malik, Irwa al-Ghalil: 2354, Al-Da’ifah: 2957, Abu Dawood: 4428, Bukhari in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad: 737, Nasa’i: 276/4, Dar Qutni: 196/3, Ibn al-Jarud: 814, Ibn Hibban: 1513, Bayhaqi: 227/8]
Although this narration is weak, the issue is established by other authentic hadiths, as is also proven by the first authentic hadith of Bukhari.
