FIXED PENALTIES (Huduud) and PUNISHMENTS
●It was narrated from Abi-Hurairah (May Allah be pleased
with him) that the Prophet (P.P.B.U.H) said, “A
fixed penalty that is carried out in the land is better for the people of that
land than if it were to rain for forty days.” [AL-Nasaᶦi and Ibn Majah].
Why fixed penalties are legislated?
God and His Messenger have legislated a number of
punishments to encounter wildness and chaos in which societies lived in the
pre-Islamic ignorance, where the powerful were preying on the powerless, and
lusts were unbridled, so people were more like vicious animals.
Fixed penalties have been legislated so that, before
committing a crime, a criminal thinks a thousand times about his scandal and
punishment. As a result, punishments are deterrent to him and to the others.
Killing a murderer is the punishment for his crime, hand amputation is the punishment for theft, flogging is for an unmarried adulterer, stoning to death is for a married adulterer, flogging is for a wine-drinker, and flogging is for the slanderer of the others without evidence.
Killing a murderer is the punishment for his crime, hand amputation is the punishment for theft, flogging is for an unmarried adulterer, stoning to death is for a married adulterer, flogging is for a wine-drinker, and flogging is for the slanderer of the others without evidence.
Over the years, unfortunately application of fixed
penalties has been cancelled and as a result, crime has become widespread
because the new punishments are poor and disproportionate to the harm caused to
victims.
For instance, what harm can occur to the one who steals
millions and leads a charmed life, if he has stayed in prison for some years?!
And the beast who kidnaps an innocent girl and destroys her life, how is he
punished?!
□Are fixed penalties restraints or expiations?
He who has committed a crime and has been punished in
this world, will he be punished in the Hereafter?
Scholars have two opinions about this issue:
[1] Some of them see that applying fixed penalties in
this world is a restraint only.
Because when the one, who thinks about committing a
crime, sees that a murderer has been killed, and an adulterer has been flogged
or stoned, he will be restrained from doing like them, and thus crime is
prevented.
But, there is a punishment also in the Hereafter; their evidence of
that is the verse ﴾That is for
them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great
punishment﴿
Chapter of
the Table.
And the verse ﴾But whoever
kills a believer intentionally- his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide
eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has
prepared for him a great punishment﴿
Chapter of
Women. Verse NO 93
The previous verses have not excluded those who repented,
i.e., they have not said: “Except those who repented.”
●It was narrated from Ibn ᶦAbbas that the Prophet
(P.P.B.U.H) said, “A murdered person comes
(on the Day
of Judgment) holding his own head in
one hand and in his other hand, he is holding the clothes of his murderer at
the neck, also the murdered person’s jugulum is bleeding.
Then (angels make both of them) stand (in front of God) and the murdered person says to Allah, Exalted is He, ‘This one murdered me.’ Then, Allah says to the murderer: ‘Be miserable (cursed are you).’ Then (angels) take him (the murderer) to the Fire.” [Ahmad].
Then (angels make both of them) stand (in front of God) and the murdered person says to Allah, Exalted is He, ‘This one murdered me.’ Then, Allah says to the murderer: ‘Be miserable (cursed are you).’ Then (angels) take him (the murderer) to the Fire.” [Ahmad].
[2]
Another group of scholars sees that fixed penalties are expiations, i.e., exempt from punishment in the Hereafter, and
their evidence of that is God’s saying about highway robbers ﴾Except for those who
return [repenting] before
you apprehend them. And know that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful﴿ Chapter
of the Table. Verse NO 34.
And His
saying ﴾Except for those who repent, believe,
and do righteous work. For them Allah will replace their evil deeds with good.
And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful﴿ Chapter of the Criterion (Surat AL
Furqaan). Verse NO 70.
And there are
a lot of traditions about that, for example:
●It was narrated from Abi-Hurairah that the Messenger
of Allah said, “Whoever commits a sin and is
punished for it in this world, Allah is too generous to repeat the punishment
for His servant in the Hereafter.” [AL-Tirmidhi].
●And in another tradition the Prophet (P.P.B.U.H) said,
“And whoever commits any of those sins and
receives the punishment in this world, that punishment will be an expiation for
his sins and purification.” [AL-Bukhari].
●Also, the tradition about the woman of Juhainah who committed adultery and was stoned,
then the Prophet performed (funeral) prayer over her, and thereupon ᶦUmar said to him: “Are you praying over her
even though she has committed adultery?” He said, “She has repented in a manner that, if
it were to be shared among seventy of the people of AL-Madinah, it would
suffice them.” [Muslim].
¨This issue is thorny
and it is not easy to rule on it by a decisive say due to these considerations:
❶A ruler must apply the penalty, if the crime has been
clear.
Since Allah has revealed the criminal, or he himself has sought to expiate for
it, his punishment in this world will be far less than his scandal and
punishment in the Hereafter.
●It was narrated
from Ibn ᶦUmar
that the Prophet said, “Avoid these filthy
practices which Allah, the Almighty, has prohibited.
He who commits any of those should conceal with Allah’s Most High Veil (i.e. should not speak out about it), and should turn to Allah, the Most High in repentance, for if anyone uncovers his hidden sins (to us), we shall inflict on him the punishment prescribed by Allah, the Almighty.” [AL-Hakim and AL-Muwattaᶦ].
He who commits any of those should conceal with Allah’s Most High Veil (i.e. should not speak out about it), and should turn to Allah, the Most High in repentance, for if anyone uncovers his hidden sins (to us), we shall inflict on him the punishment prescribed by Allah, the Almighty.” [AL-Hakim and AL-Muwattaᶦ].
❷In the
Hereafter, punishment will not be cancelled, if the penalty in this world has
been applied to the criminal after chasing him, while he is running away and
disappearing. Because he has not repented and if he was
able to escape, he would repeat his crime.
Also, a person who commits a sin and
boasts of it, he is to be punished in the Hereafter, because he encourages the
others to act like him.
●Abu Hurairah
reported: I heard the Prophet say, “All the
people of my nation will get pardon for their sins except those who publicize
them.
And (it means) that a servant does a deed at night, which Allah has covered for him, and in the morning he says (to people): ‘I committed such and such sin last night.’ While Allah has kept it a secret. During the night Allah has covered it up, but in the morning he tears up the cover provided by Allah Himself.” [The Two Scholars].
And (it means) that a servant does a deed at night, which Allah has covered for him, and in the morning he says (to people): ‘I committed such and such sin last night.’ While Allah has kept it a secret. During the night Allah has covered it up, but in the morning he tears up the cover provided by Allah Himself.” [The Two Scholars].
❸There are two
types of sins that servants commit:
□Transgression of limits set by Allah.
□Violation of servants’ rights.
¨As
for Allah’s right, like fasting a day of Ramadan, wine
drinking, or abandonment of prayer, if Allah covered His servant’s sin, he
would be between two things:
①Either
Allah knows the truth of his repentance and regret and forgives him in the
Hereafter.
He will ask him: ‘Do you know (that you did) such-and-such sin?’ He says, ‘Yes, my Lord.’ Allah will keep on asking him till he will confess all his sins and will think that he is ruined.
Then He will say, ‘I covered them up for you in the life of world, and I forgive them for you today.’ Then he will be given the book of his good deeds.” [The Two Scholars].
②Or Allah hastens his
punishment in this world.
When Allah knows that his faith is true, but
he has been vulnerable to Devil’s temptation and has not worked hard to repent,
then He causes him to be seriously ill, to have a disobedient child, or to have
a bothering neighbor, so that when he bears with this bitterness, this expiates
for his sins.
●Yahya ibn Saᶦid reported: Death came to a man in the time of the
Messenger of Allah. A man said: “He was fortunate; he died without being tried
by illness. The Messenger of Allah (P.P.B.U.H) said, “Alas for you, what will let you know
that if Allah had tried him with illness, He would have wiped out his wrong
actions.” [Narrated from Malik in AL-Muattaᶦ].
●It was narrated from Abi-Hurairah (May Allah be pleased
with him) that the Prophet (P.P.B.U.H) said, “A Muslim, male or female, continues to remain under
trial in his self, offspring, and wealth until he meets Allah, the Exalted,
without having any sin.”
[AL-Tirmidhi].
So, this kind of sins entails that the sinner
keeps it secret, i.e., no one should know it but Allah, works hard to repent,
and stops talking about it.
If a sinner talked about his sin, those of little
faith may say, “This one disobeyed Allah and was not injured.” Then, they dare
to commit sins.
¨As for servants’
rights,
they are imprescriptible. They must be given back to their owners.
●In Sahih Muslim, Abu-Hurairah reported that the
Prophet (P.P.B.U.H) said: “Do you know who is the bankrupt?” They
said: “The
bankrupt among us is the one who has neither money with him nor any property.”
He said, “The real bankrupt of my nation (Ummah)
is the one who comes on the Day of Judgment with
prayers, fasts, and obligatory charity, but he comes having abused this one,
falsely accusing that one, unlawfully consuming the wealth of this one,
spilling the blood of that one, and beating this one.
So his merits are
credited to the account of those (who
suffered at his hands). And if his merits are
exhausted before they clear the account, then their sins will be entered in his
account and he will be thrown in the Hell.”
Allah, mercifully, may forgive minor sins if the
sinner is away from great sins.
Great sins are like:
Disobedience to
parents, magic, murder, forged speech, usury, devouring the property of
orphans, causing harm to a neighbour, theft, adultery, slander, and fleeing
from the battlefield at the time of fighting.
□Disobedience moment is very serious in man’s life,
because if his life ended at this moment, he would lose this world and the
Hereafter due to his loss of faith.
●It was narrated from Abi-Hurairah that Allah’s Apostle
said, “An adulterer is
not a believer at the time of committing adultery, a thief is not a believer at
the time of committing theft, and a wine drinker is not a believer at the time
of drinking, but repentance is available to him after that.” [Muslim].
Islam does not welcome frequency of crimes and punishments
God says ﴾Indeed those who like that immorality
should be spread [or
publicized] among those who have believed will have a painful punishment
in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows and you do not know﴿ Chapter of Light. Verse NO 19
God,
Almighty, likes Islamic Society’s reputation to be pure and clean, so He urges
Muslims to make forgiveness prevalent. For example:
1)
At the end of the Battle of Uhud, the Prophet was surprised when he saw the
corpse of his uncle Hamzah after Hend bint ᶦUtbah, the wife of Abi-Sufiaan, had opened it and
extracted his liver.
So,the Prophet swore that indeed if Allah made him defeat them, he would mutilate the corpses of seventy one of them.
Then, a verse was revealed to forbid that and to urge him to be patient; the Prophet obeyed it.
Afterwards, Hend and Wahshi (who had killed Hamzah) embraced Islam, and the Prophet did not harm them.
2)
The Prophet used to ignore those who came and asked him to apply fixed
penalties to them. Indeed, he was not pleased with having parties of flogging,
stoning, and cutting hands. He hated nothing more than bringing someone
committed a sin to him.
●Imran ibn Hussain reported: A man bit the hand of
another man, who pulled his hand away, and the biting man’s front tooth (or
teeth) fell out. He complained about that to the messenger of Allah, and the messenger
of Allah got angry and said, “What do you want?
Put your hand in his mouth (allow him) to bite it and then draw it away if you
want (to make his teeth fall).”
□Also, every time they brought a thief to ᶦUmar ibn
AL-Khattab, he used to say, “No welcome for these faces that not seen except in
evil.”
3) Allah blamed Muslims for rushing into repeating the
slander talk. They should have avoided the pitfall of rumors that lead to
Islamic society disintegration.
God says ﴾Why, when you heard it, did not the believing men and
believing women think good of one another and say, “This is an obvious
falsehood?”﴿
Chapter of
Light. Verse NO 12
﴾When you received it with your tongues and said with your
mouths that of which you had no knowledge and thought it was insignificant
while it was, in the sight of Allah, tremendous (15) And why, when you heard it, did you not say, “It is not for
us to speak of this. Exalted are you, [O Allah]; this is a
great slander (16)﴿ Chapter of Light.
The Prophet could have applied penalty to those who had
been involved in this plot as they were known, but he preferred to forgive
them.
…………………………………………
¨It
is disliked to apply fixed penalties in mosques.
¨Fixed
penalties should be applied publicly in daylight.
Once,
Ibn ᶦUmar
ibn AL-Khattab drank wine wrongly in Egypt and ᶦAmr ibn AL-ᶦAs applied the penalty of flogging to him in the
atrium of the house. Then, ᶦUmar
called him (his son) and applied the penalty to him again in front of people in
AL-Madinah.
Read also
Fixed penalties of adultery and slander
Fixed penalty of Intoxication
Fixed penalty of theft and highway robbery
Murder
Read also
Fixed penalties of adultery and slander
Fixed penalty of Intoxication
Fixed penalty of theft and highway robbery
Murder
