Prescribed Punishments: The Exception, Not the Rule

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clipped from www.readingislam.com Question Asalamolkum. After reading the hudud punishments of Allah in Al-Bukhari and Muslim, etc. I feel it's not like the Prophet and the sahabah (Companions of the Prophet)  to beat up and strike people. I have always known the Prophet and sahabah to be gentle except at war. Can you explain the hudud (Allah's prescribed punishments) which many westerners attack Islam by? Answer Hudud is but a small part of the Shari`ah (Islamic law) and are not by any means equivalent to the word Shari`ah, as one might see in a lot of popular literature and media pieces, especially in the English language. *{And as for those who accuse chaste women [of adultery], and then are unable to produce four witnesses [in support of their accusation], flog them with eighty stripes and ever after refuse to accept from them any testimony - since it is they, they that are truly depraved.}* (An-Nur 24:4)