Fixed Penalties (Huduud) and Punishments

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.

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].      

[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].

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].

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.

    

 ●Ibn ᶦUmar (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah say, “Allah will bring a believer near Him, envelope him in His care, and cover him. Then He will make him confess his sins.
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