This section brings together four translations of two crucial verses from the Qur’an. The first refers to women exclusively, and the second is sometimes interpreted to refer to men and sometimes to men and women. Notes following the different English versions touch on some of the issues in interpreting the Arabic text.
From Ahmed Ali, Al-Qur’an: A Contemporary Translation
Qur’an 4:15-16
If any of your women is guilty of fornication, bring four of your men to give evidence; if they testify against them, retain them in the houses until death or until God provides some other way for them.
If two men among you are guilty of such acts, then punish both of them, but if they repent and reform, let them be, for God accepts repentance and is merciful.
Here are a few additional translations of these verses. There are different interpretations as to whether the masculine dual form used in verse 4:16 relates to two men or to a male-female couple.
4.15
YUSUFALI: If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, Take the evidence of four (Reliable) witnesses from amongst you against them; and if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them, or Allah ordain for them some (other) way.
PICKTHAL: As for those of your women who are guilty of lewdness, call to witness four of you against them. And if they testify (to the truth of the allegation) then confine them to the houses until death take them or (until) Allah appoint for them a way (through new legislation).
SHAKIR: And as for those who are guilty of an indecency from among your women, call to witnesses against them four (witnesses) from among you; then if they bear witness confine them to the houses until death takes them away or Allah opens some way for them.
4.16
YUSUFALI: If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, Leave them alone; for Allah is Oft-returning, Most Merciful.
PICKTHAL: And as for the two of you who are guilty thereof, punish them both. And if they repent and improve, then let them be. Lo! Allah is ever relenting, Merciful.
SHAKIR: And as for the two who are guilty of indecency from among you, give them both a punishment; then if they repent and amend, turn aside from them; surely Allah is Oft-returning (to mercy), the Merciful.
Source: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/004.qmt.html
NOTE: Verse 4:15 uses the feminine plural, not the dual: it does not specify “two women” but rather “those among your women who approach al-fahisha” (alaati … min nisa’ikum). By “your women” the text presumably intends women of the Muslim community, as elsewhere in the Qur’an. Fahisha has several meanings, including those used here of “fornication,” “lewdness,” or “indecency.” (For example, elsewhere the Qur’an uses the phrase fahisha mubayyina or “clear lewdness” as the only circumstance under which a man can take back part of the dower of a woman he is repudiating). Verse 4:16 uses the masculine dual “two ... from among you” (aladhaani … minkum). However, as with all masculine forms in Arabic, it can include both male and female. (Thus, a masculine plural can refer to a group that is exclusively male or that includes both men and women.) Some translators (and commentators) understand this verse to refer to two men by contrast with the preceding verse, which specifies only females (though not “two women”), and by assuming that the audience addressed is exclusively masculine (“from among you” in contrast to “from among your women”). The Qur’anic text in verse 4:16 does not specify men or males in the way women are specified in the previous verse, and thus some interpret the verse as referring to a male-female couple guilty of illicit intercourse or other indecent behavior.
