When should a stoning punishment be executed after delivery?

General Chapter

Al-Mughni

Book of Ḥudūd (Prescribed Penalties)

Book 51 · Issue 2 · Bab 1

Open in Qurani

Primary text

After the child is born, if the prescribed punishment is stoning, it is not to be carried out until the woman has nursed the child with colostrum (al-lab'a), because the child cannot survive without it. Subsequently, if there is someone to nurse the child or someone undertakes its nursing, she is stoned. Otherwise, the stoning is postponed until she weans the child, based on the Hadith of the Ghamidiyyah woman and the narration where the Prophet commanded the woman who confessed to adultery while pregnant to return, nurse the child until it is weaned, and only then was she stoned after the child was handed over to a Muslim guardian.