Expiation for zina

Question

Question: Rahmat was an unmarried girl. When she reached the age of maturity, while her husband had not yet reached maturity, she formed a romantic attachment with her maternal aunt’s son, Bakr, and they began to mix with each other unlawfully. When the guardians learned of this and the girl too realised her mistake, she stopped meeting Bakr. During the said affair, when they came together, their mutual sexual thirst was also quenched. Now that boy too is not willing to marry.

Answer

The punishment for an unlawful sexual relationship is very severe, and (its) conditions are severe too, but those conditions do not exist here in the present age, so that punishment cannot be given. Fasting or feeding (the poor) is not its punishment. Now all that remains is to weep before Allah and, with utmost remorse, repent (tawba) and seek forgiveness (istighfar).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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