Words of slander

Firstly: 

The slander for which the hadd punishment
must be carried out on the slanderer is accusation of zina (fornication or
adultery) or homosexuality. In that case the slanderer must be given eighty
lashes, if he does not produce four witnesses to testify to the truth of
what he is saying, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And
those who accuse chaste women, and produce not four witnesses, flog them
with eighty stripes”

[al-Noor 24:4]. 

Secondly: 

Words which may be used in slanderous ways
are of two types: explicit or implicit. 

Explicit words are those which cannot be
understood in any other way than as an accusation of zina or homosexuality,
and the slanderer’s claims that he meant something other than slander cannot
be accepted. 

Examples include saying “O adulterer”, “You
committed zina” or “O homosexual”. 

It cannot be accepted if he says, “When I
said ‘ya looti (O homosexual),’ I meant that he was a follower of the
religion of Loot (peace be upon him), or that he did any of the actions of
his people except that immoral action,” because this phrase, ‘ya looti’,
cannot be understand in any way except as a accusation of immorality. 

As for implicit phrases, these are words
that may be taken as slander or they may be understood otherwise. 

In this case the slanderer is to asked what
he meant, and he has to tell the truth, because carrying out the hadd
punishment on him in this world is easier to bear than punishment in the
Hereafter. If he says: “I intended to slander him”, then he has slandered
him, and if he says, “I meant something other than slander”, then there is
no hadd punishment, but he should be given a disciplinary punishment for
reviling people. 

Examples of that include saying “O evildoer”
and the like. 

See al-Mughni (12/392), al-Majmoo’
(22/113), Haashiyat al-Dasooqi (6/324). 

It should be noted that reference is to be
made to what words customarily mean, which varies from one country or time
to another. The word may be regarded as implicit among some people and as
explicit by others. So attention must be paid to that. 

Haashiyat al-Dasooqi
(6/328); al-Sharh al-Mumti’ (14/289). 

Based on that, if he reviled someone and
said “O evildoer”, then he should be asked what he meant by this phrase. If
he says “I meant to accuse him of zina,” then this is slander. If he says,
“I did not mean to accuse him of zina” then no hadd punishment is due, but
he should be given a disciplinary punishment, and the judge may punish him
as he sees fit, as stated above. 

And Allaah knows best.