An intresting debate, i would vote for brother Ahmed's understanding of yousaf's charge. yousaf was not prisoned for adultery , but probably for an attempted rape.(could that be the punishment for a rape or an attempted rape?) i am still confused about cutting the hand/marking /cut off resources of thief etc , nobody has a satisfactory explanation,especially when in 5-33 God is commanding us to consider severing the hand and a foot of the people who commit horrendous crimes , as one of the option???? i think this requires more work. sikandar Hello Actually, it seems both parties have valid point, I lean to agree that he was not improsined for adultry but possibly the women conspired with the governor wife to put him in jail, this was after they cut their hands, Logically speaking he can't be accused of anything in the first incident when his shirt was ripped by the governor wife, because when an expert witness testified about where the shirt was ripped, it clearly proved Yusuf innocence, the governor even confirmed his wife mistake, later on when the rumour started to circulate in town, the governor wife made her plot to bring those women who talk about her love to Yusuf and let them see Yusuf so she may be excused, in this second event I believe it caused his charges, I guess cutting their hands might have been used somehow, at the end of the day we dont really need to know the charges because the Quran never mentioned it, but we know that it was his request from Allah to be jailed and Allah made it true for him and we also know that he was a great prophet who was never involved in any ill conduct. Regarding cutting off the hands of thieves, I was actually a believer that the hand of thieves must be cut off, then I stumbled into Joe proposition for 538-39 about 3 years ago which was very convincing due to the fact mentioned in 539 that if they repent and do good then Allah will forgive them, so I started promoting his understanding. Later on as I read in the Quran, I found that taking it as cutting resources may cause a few contradictions regarding the word "Qataa", so i did further studies and truly believe in a revised understanding that use the word literally as cut off but at the same time the hands will not be cut off under a couple of conditions that must be met, in a way it is about showing compassion and giving the thief a chance to repent and do good without cutting off the hands but if the thief insists on stealing then the hand must be cut off. This is not my wishful thinking, in fact it is very logical if we consider the other severe punishment regarding adultery which is 100 lashes in public, the same verse ordered us "NOT TO SHOW COMPASSION" when we punish the adulterers therefore there is nothing that can't stop us from showing compassion to the thieves by giving them a chance to repent and do good and if they do then everyone is happy and Allah will forgive them as 539 told us, most importantly they can blend in the society again normally this is because no hand is cut, but if they don't then they have to lose their hand because it has been proven that they are malice thieves. This is what I settled on regarding the punishment for theft in the Quran and I do feel very comfortable with it Allah knows best Salam