Muhammad/Jesus and the Adulterous Woman

(NOTE: This story, now borrowed from the Gospel of John, was originally not part of that book but was first borrowed from the now nonexistent Gospel of the Nazarenes.)

Early in the morning, Muhammad/Jesus came into the mosque/synagogue, and everyone came following.  So he sat down and began to teach.

As he was speaking and the crowd listening, a group of men made their way through the crowd, dragging a distraught and fearful woman with them.

When they got to the center of the crowd where Muhammad/Jesus was, they held the woman before him and said, "This woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.  Our laws say that she should be buried up to her shoulders and stoned to death.  What do you say?"

Muhammad/Jesus ignored them, and stooping over began writing with his finger on the ground, pretending he couldn't hear them even though their arguments for why the woman should be thus punished grew louder and more insistent.  Finally, he stood up, and they could see what he'd been writing.

Whoever looks upon another person lustfully has already committed adultery with them in their heart.

"Read this," he said to the men, "then let whichever one of you is without sin among you throw the first stone."

Then he sat down and began writing on the ground again.

One by one, the men, convicted by their own consciences, dropped their stones on the ground and walked away.

Finally, there was no one left in the center of the mosque but Muhammad/Jesus and the woman, with the congregation looking on silently.

Muhammad/Jesus looked up, blinking his eyes as he cast his gaze around the room, seeing no one left but the woman in the center now.  He looked at the woman as he stood up and asked, "Woman, where are your accusers?  Is anyone left to condemn you?"

The woman replied, "They are gone, master, there is no one."

Muhammad/Jesus smiled, saying, "Then neither do I.  Go, and remember that God is Compassionate and Merciful."

The woman made her way to the outer edge of the crowd, which she joined, as the Prophet/the Messiah sat back down and resumed teaching.