Re: Gay/lesbian friends
The Qur’an uses the phrase “fornicators or adulterers” in Qur’an 24:2 and prescribes 100 lashes as the punishment (verse 4:15 suggests house arrest for “lewdness”). This almost certainly refers to unmarried sex only, since it would make little sense that fornication and adultery be prescribed the exact same punishment when they are very different offenses. It would also contradict the many examples from the Hadith in which Muhammad put adulterers to death. In fact, Muslim (17:4209) records a case in which an unmarried man is ordered flogged, while his married partner in crime is stoned.
According to Umar, the companion of Muhammad and Islam’s second caliph, “[Allah] sent down the Book (Quran) upon him (Muhamad), and the verse of stoning was included in what was sent down to him.” Umar went on to insist that “Stoning is a duty laid down in Allah’s Book for married men and women who commit adultery when proof is established, or it there is pregnancy, or a confession.” (Muslim 17:4194)
In other words, there was a verse in the original Quran narration that prescribed stoning adulterers, but it was left out of the compiling process in the years following Muhammad’s death. Umar’s insistence on the stoning verse is recorded in other volumes that are also among the most reliable Hadith, including Sahih Bukhari 8:817: *“I am afraid that after a long time has passed, somebody will say, ‘By Allah, we do not find the Verse of the Rajam in Allah’s Book,’ and thus they will go astray by leaving an obligation which Allah has revealed. And the punishment of the Rajam is to be inflicted to any married person (male & female), who commits illegal sexual intercourse.” * (Rajam refers to stoning).