Treat people with respect & kindness

This hadith is about the punishment of a slave woman who has committed fornication. According to this hadith, if a slave woman commits fornication, her master should punish her with the prescribed punishment up to three times. However, he must not insult or hurl reproaches at her during this time. If she continues to commit the same crime four times then he should flog her and sell her even if only for a rope of hair. This hadith teaches us that we must treat people with respect and kindness even when they have done something wrong or broken the law in some way. We must also remember that punishments are meant to correct behaviour rather than humiliate or degrade someone else's dignity and honour.