Chapter on What Necessitates Discretionary Punishment, Legal Punishment, Stoning, Execution, and Exile in Adultery

Narrated by Yunus ibn Ya'qub from Abu Maryam who said: I asked Abu Abdullah عليه السلام during the last time I met Imam عليه السلام, about a boy who had not reached puberty and committed adultery with a woman or fornicated with a woman. What should be done to them? Imam عليه السلام replied: "The boy is to be beaten but not subjected to the full prescribed punishment (hadd), while the hadd punishment is to be carried out on the woman." I then asked: "What if a young girl who has not reached puberty was found with a man committing fornication with her?" Imam عليه السلام replied: "The girl is to be beaten but not given the full hadd punishment, and the hadd punishment is to be carried out on the man."