The word · Law & life
الزِّنا
Zina
Sexual intercourse outside marriage: a major sin, and one of the fixed penalty offences.
Also written · Zinaa · Zena · Zinah · Zani · Zaniyah · Zina bil jabr · adultery · fornication · unlawful intercourse · sex outside marriage · illicit relations
The meaning
What Zina means in Islam
The Qur'an says do not go near it, calling it an immorality and an evil way, and the wording is read as forbidding the approaches to it as well as the act. The penalty carries a bar of proof so high it is almost never reached, four upright witnesses to the act itself, and the same passage punishes those who make the accusation without them. Islamic law discourages prying, and consistently prefers concealment and repentance to exposure.
Evidence · Qur’an · Stated directly in the Qur’an
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- HududThe small set of fixed penalties named in revelation, hedged about with very strict proof.حُدود
- HaramForbidden. Leaving it is rewarded, and doing it deliberately is a sin.حَرام
- NikahThe Islamic marriage contract, formed by offer, acceptance, witnesses and a mahr.نِكاح
- Ta'zirDiscretionary punishment, set by a judge for offences that carry no fixed penalty.تَعْزير
More from Law & life
- 'AqdA contract: a binding agreement formed by an offer and its acceptance.عَقْد
- DiyahBlood money: compensation paid to a victim's family for a killing or an injury.دِيَة
- HijabThe covering a Muslim woman wears in public, most often a headscarf with modest clothing.حِجاب
- MahrThe gift of money or property the groom owes the bride, which belongs to her alone.مَهْر
- MurabahahA sale at a disclosed cost plus markup, widely used in Islamic banking in place of lending.مُرابَحة
- RiddahApostasy: abandoning Islam after having accepted it.رِدَّة