Is slandering a perfumed woman who passes by people so that they may find her scent—as the Messenger described her as an adulteress—a cause for the prescribed punishment for slander in this world and punishment in the hereafter?

Accusing a woman of fornication merely because she wears perfume necessitates punishment in this world and the hereafter if the woman does not relinquish her right. Indeed, whoever accuses a free, chaste Muslim is subject to the hadd punishment for slander. While it is unlawful for a woman to wear perfume and go out in a way that men smell her fragrance, and it may even be considered a major sin, based on the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "Every eye is an adulterer, and if a woman perfumes herself and passes by a gathering, she is such and such, meaning an adulteress," and his saying: "Any woman who perfumes herself and passes by a people so that they may smell her fragrance, she is an adulteress, and every eye is an adulterer," nevertheless, describing her as an adulteress here is metaphorical, for exaggeration and warning, and does not mean she is truly an adulteress. This does not waive the hadd punishment for slander from the one who accuses her of fornication.