I asked Imam (as) about a man who denies his child after having acknowledged him. Imam (as) said: "If the child is from a free woman, the father is to be flogged fifty lashes, which is the punishment for a slave. But if the child is from a slave woman, there is no punishment upon him." And if a man says to another man: "You commit the act of the people of Lut (engaging in relations with men)," he is to be flogged eighty lashes. Similarly, if he says to him: "O' effeminate one" or "O' one who is penetrated," he is to be flogged with the legal punishment for slander - eighty lashes. If a man slanders a group of people with a single statement without naming them individually, he is subjected to one legal punishment. However, if he names them specifically, then a separate legal punishment applies to each person he named. This was narrated by Burayd Al-Ijli from Abu Jafar Imam Muhammad ibn Ali Al-Baqir (as). It has also been narrated: "If they (the slandered individuals) come forward separately, each one of them receives a separate punishment. But if they come forward collectively, only one punishment is administered. If a man slanders another and is flogged, but then repeats the slander, and if he says, 'What I said to you is true,' he is not flogged again. However, if he accuses him of adultery again after being flogged, the legal punishment applies. Yet, if he accuses him ten times before being flogged, only one punishment will be administered."