Crime and Punishment in Islam

 

Crime and Punishment in Islam

Muhammad Salim Rojvithee

May peace and blessings of Allah be upon Muhammad, the greatest Messenger and the last of all the Prophets. He was hounoured with the Holy Qur’an, the complete and last word in Divine Revelations, and the harbinger of peace, justice, affection for the mankind.

It came down to us as a report from Hadrat Ayesha, may Allah be pleased with her. saying, “First come in the verses speaking of rewards and damnation; and when the hearts were made soft and receptive, ready to melt into tears, then followed the injunctions (orders and laws). Otherwise, had drink (wine) been forbidden on the very first day, who would have cared to listen to it?”

Al-Qur’an was revealed piece-meal in a period of twenty-three years. The early parts of it, which called people to the fold of Islam, deal with the Existence of Allah as the Reality, the Life after death, love, fear, and sacrifice. When Faith was rooted deep in the hearts of the Muslims, Qur’an called them to Jehad; and when Muslims had established their own state verses relating to statesmanship and administrative Principles were revealed; and when they were free from wars religious and penal laws were given.

In the Days of Ignorance, there was no sanctity of life. People in Arabia-used to kill their babies either because they were poor or the babies were female. A single murder case could easily cause wars involving scores of tribes and a great number of mortalities. Since the most precious of the things on earth is human life, Almighty God has declared its sanctity in Surah Bani Israil:— 

“Kill not your children for fear of want, We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily, the killing of them is a great sin. Nor come nigh unto adultery, for it is a shameful deed and an evil opening the road to other evils. Nor take life which God has made sacred, except for just cause. And if anyone is slain wrongfully We have given his heir right to d demand Qasas or to forgive, but let him not exceed bounds in the matter of taking life for he is helped” (31-33) .

These verses were revealed to the Prophet (ﷺ), may peace be upon-him, during his stay in Mecca.

The Jews would always fight among themselves and were used to unfair dealings. Allah, therefore, ordained in Surah Maida: “We ordained therein for them, life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth and wounds equal for equal.” This verse, in its context referred to the Jews of Medina. The universal application is enjoined in Surah Baqara: “O ye who believe, the law of equality is prescribed to you in cases of murder." (2:178).

The Qur’an has also ordained about unintentional killing. It is desirable on the part of the kiths and kins of the deceased to forgive or to accept blood-money. It is also desirable that believing slaves be set free as compensation. However, no compensation accrues to a combatant killed in war. And if the killer is unable to pay blood-money, two consecutive months of fasting in repentance is incumbent on him. This was revealed in the sixth year of Hijra.

At the conquest of Mecca, in the eight year of Hijra, the Noble Prophet (ﷺ), proclaimed security of life. He declared that all claims to blood coming down from the Days of Ignorance lay trodden under his feet. And he fixed 400 dinars as blood-money for unintentional murder of the townsmen.

Property is most dear to man after life. The Arabs used to amputate hands of the thieves as punishment. Islam allowed this practice to continue. In the eighth year of Hijra, a woman of Makhzim tribe, belonging to a respectable family, committed theft. Usamah bin Zaid was asked to intercede for her. Thereupon, the Noble Prophet (ﷺ) called an assembly of the faithful and emphatically denounced all unjust practices. He said: “This is why former communities came to be destroyed; they sentenced the lowly people and connived at the offences of the high-placed persons. I swear by Allah, I would cut off the hand of my own daughter Fatimah if she happened to commit a theft." With these words, properties are given security, and sanctity of Law of God is emphasized; and more so, equality of all men is established.

Another common evil to which man easily succumbs is adultery. The law for illicitly sexual intercourse was promulgated in the ninth year of Hijra in Surah Nur; a hundred stripes were fixed for adultery. However, the Traditions show that a hundred-strip punishment was ordained for fornication and stoning to death was the sentence for adultery.

The incident that marked this injunction is most remarkable. Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him reported that a man (from the tribe Aslam) waited on the Prophet (ﷺ), and confessed four times that he had committed Zina (adultery). The Noble Prophet (ﷺ), turned his face from him every time, but when the man went in front of him and repeated his confession, the Prophet (ﷺ) inquired if he had committed the Zina physically and not metaphorically. Thereupon he asked, “What do you intend by this saying?" The man said, “l wish that you make me pure." The Prophet ordered him to be stoned to death.

The total prohibition of alcoholic drinks was made step by step because the Arabs were too much addicted to it. The Madinites drank wine more than those in Mecca, and it was a source of inspiration for their poets. In Surah Baqara, verse 219, Qur’an points out that the evils of gambling and wine are greater than their benefit. This encourage people to continue to drink, as it was not a total ban, in Surah Nisa, verse 43. Qur'an forbids praying while one is intoxicated. Hence, people drank off the prayer hours. To prove its own evils, wine drove many a good people into violence and rowdyism. So came from Almighty God a verdict in Surah Maida putting wine, gambling, idolatry and divination by arrows (a kind of superstition) in the same category, asking the believers to abstain from them. The Prophet (ﷺ), had it at once proclaimed in the streets of Medina.

According to reports in the Traditions punishment for drinking wine was sometimes beating with hands, sticks or shoes, sometimes forty stripes (in the time of Hazrat Omar, may Allah bless him, only) and sometimes the accused was not punished if he repented.

In all the "Muslims countries today there is a lot of hue and cry for the promulgation of Islamic Law and the implementation particularly of criminal acts. People usually forget that punishment for crimes is meant for criminals who are in minority only. Besides, it is not the aim of Islam to go on punishing people but it aims at making people aware of the moral obligations and to purify their hearts. Islam is not a collection of laws that can often be violated. It lays great emphasis on moral obligations which once take roots in the heart can never be violated. Amr bin Shuaib, may Allah be pleased with him, reported the Noble Prophet (ﷺ), saying, “Pardon one another the ordained crimes that are among you. What reaches me about an ordained crime becomes enforceable.” If a true believer committed a crime he would repent like the man who confessed his Zina to the Prophet and asked for purification. Further in that same Hadith, the Holy Prophet (ﷺ) heard two of his companions condemning the man who was stoned to death and passed bad remarks on him. When he passed by the carcass of a donkey he asked those two companions to get down to eat that, and they could not. He said, “what you just now gained from the honour of your brother is more heinous than to devour it. By the One in whose hand lies my life, he is certainly now in the rivers of the Paradise being immerged therein.”

Indeed, by mere constitutionalizing Islamic Law does not make one’s heart purer at all. But if people’s hearts are clean Islamic Law will prevail finally. That will be an inviolable Law which is enforced from the internal to the external and not vice versa. A true believer is never to meet failure though he be a criminal if only he repents on his crime. Allah is the-most Merciful, Oft-Forgiving.

From the above one can conclude that Islam is all for leniency and forgiveness. But once a crime has been proved the convict must be punished in accordance with the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The attitude of Hazrat Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, towards those who wanted concessions in regard to the limits laid down by God and His Prophet (ﷺ), illustrates the point fully.

The fact is that the ills of the whole humanity can only be cured by what the Creator has prescribed as remedy. In mutual dealings individuals should be tolerant and considerate, but when an offence has been committed against society like murder, rape or theft the culprit must be punished. Of course, in a case when theft has been committed by an individual whom society failed to provide the necessities of life, responsibility for crime rests equally on both society and the culprit.

The Muslim states must change over to the Islamic Law, lest the rulers lose their right to demand obedience from their respective peoples.