How can one distinguish between truth and falsehood, especially with conflicting opinions on matters such as the حد الرجم (stone-throwing punishment for adultery), and can religious rulings that seem to contradict reason or mercy be accepted?

A Muslim must receive his religion from trustworthy scholars and avoid listening to those who spread doubts and follow whims, because hearts are weak and doubts are captivating. The imams of the Salaf used to warn against this. Indeed, Ibn Tawus warned his son against listening to anyone who spoke about divine decree, saying: "For the heart is weak." The man who denied the punishment of stoning is known for disbelieving in mutawatir (concurrently transmitted) Sunnahs, rejecting jurisprudential rulings that are based on scholarly consensus, and slandering the Companions. In fact, he even calls for a re-evaluation of the rulings explicitly stated in the Holy Quran, such as the shares of inheritance.

Stoning is established by the Quran, the Sunnah, and the consensus of scholars, and has only been denied by the Khawarij and the people of innovation. Scholars have unanimously agreed that stoning is the prescribed punishment for the married fornicator, and that the verse: "The fornicating woman and the fornicating man — flog each one of them with a hundred lashes" (An-Nur: 2) applies specifically to virgins, or that its generality is specified or abrogated by the verse of stoning and the Sunnah. Indeed, the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the Companions, and the scholars after them, carried out stoning. The claim of those who deny stoning is not new, but they are a bad precedent. These individuals present their flimsy doubts disguised as rationality and enlightenment, to be promoted among the ignorant.

One must differentiate between what the intellect cannot grasp and what the intellect deems impossible. The messengers may convey what bewilders the intellect, but not what it deems impossible. The abrogation of the recitation of the verse of stoning while its ruling remains is a test for the Ummah in faith and acting upon something whose wording they do not find in the Quran. Denying stoning is an attack on the limits set by Allah, which the sick-minded may perceive as barbaric. Whoever denies stoning disbelieves in the hadiths that the Ummah has agreed upon as authentic and promotes falsehoods to slander the Companions.

You, O Muslim, must supplicate that Allah enlightens your insight and keeps you steadfast in following the righteous scholars. Was the Ummah, from the Companions and the Tabi'un until our present era, in error until this man appeared? Indeed, whoever opposes the Messenger and follows other than the way of the believers, Allah threatens them with the Fire. The servant will be questioned about following the Messengers, so how will one answer who rejects the hadiths of the punishment of stoning? Denying stoning leads to the demolition of the entire religion, because it necessitates denying the Sunnah and the consensus of the Ummah.