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This work is concerned with the form and content of the hadith texts reported and preserved during the Classical Period (c. 175 - 300 A.H./792 - 912 A.D.) and traditionally associated with the Stoning Penalty (SP) for adultery in Islam. Its main aim is to analyze the texts and to determine the course of their composition. The thesis is divided into two sections. Section One deals with the analyses of seven Prophetical hadiths preserved in three Sunni "Canons"; the Muwatta of Malik (d.179), the Sahih of Bukhari (d.256), and the Jami' of Tirmidhi (d.279). Section Two examines the reasons for, and nature of the Juridical disputes (Ikhtilaf al-fuqaha) of the Pre-Classical Period scholars (c. 100 - c. 200 A.H./718 - 815 AD) with respect to the laws of adultery. Each section comprises seven chapters and an introduction. The conclusion reached in Section One is that the material examined reveals more about the concerns of those who transmitted and preserved the hadiths in question than it does - as is traditionally claimed - about the early community of Muhammad in Medina. The conclusion of Section Two is that the Ikhtilaf provoked the composition of badith material dealing with the SP in Islam. This calls into question the established view that the disagreement of law specialists (fuqaha) is the result of varying individual understanding or interpretation of a particular textual prop (nass pl. nusus), and at the same time demonstrates that, in most instances, the Ikhtilaf is itself prior to the text under discussion.

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