Adultery or Fornication

Adultery or Fornication

Muslim jurists recommend that an eyewitness in a case of this sort should satisfy the court of the truth of the charge by proving what he saw with his own eyes. If he fails to satisfy the court, he is liable to punishment with eighty stripes. Therefore, it is that the task of becoming a witness is onerous under the Islamic Law. The object is to discourage such charges, which may arise from suspicion, wrong notion, jealousy or other similar causes and which, even if true, have an effect that is not likely to prove healthy on society. Adultery is either committed with an unmarried or a married person. In the former case the punishment is not so severe, but in the latter the punishment is stoning the guilty to death.

A husband may slay his wife, if he finds her with her lover in the act of sexual union. In other cases, an alleged act of adultery, if brought forward by any person, must be proved by four witnesses, whose statement should not differ or appear doubtful. If the charge is proved in accordance with the injunctions of the law, the punishment for fornication [or an unmarried person] is one hundred stripes, inflicted on a man while standing, and on a woman while sitting. The following is an English translation of the text in the Qu’ran relating to adultery: “As to the adulteress and the, adulterer scourge each one of them [with a hundred stripes] and let not pity for them detain you in the matter .and let a party of believers witness their chastisement” [1][24:2]  

Punishment for Slander

In the case of slander, one who accuses a woman of adultery must produce the evidence of four witnesses, who must clearly state the crime or else the slanderer himself is to be punished, as enjoined upon him by the Qu’ran:

“And those who accuse free women and cannot bring four witnesses, flog them with eighty stripes, and do not admit any evidence from them ever” [24:4]

“And as for those whose accuse their wives and have no witnesses except themselves, the evidence of one of these should be taken four times, bearing God to witness that he [the husband] most surely says the truth” [2]“And the fifth [time] that the curse of God be on him if he told lies” [24: 6-7][3]. “And the fifth [time] that the wrath of God be on her if he said the truth” [24: 8-9]. 

“And it shall avert the chastisement from her [the wife] if she testifies four times, bearing God to witness, that he is most surely a lair.” [24:8]

Theft and Robbery

Crime of Theft and Highway Robbery

According to the following text of the Qu’ran, the magistrate may inflict any moderate or severe kind of punishment. It is left to his discretion and depends upon his interpretation of the text and his judgment: “The punishment for those fight against God and his apostle and cause disaster in the land [by highway robbery] is: [1] to be slain; [2] crucified; [3] have their hands and feet cut off crossways; [4] or to be banished from the land – unless he or they repent and reform before falling into the hands of the court.” [5:33], “And as for the man or woman, who steals, cut off their hands as a punishment from God.” [5:38]

The judge, according to Muslim jurists, may pass the following sentence:

If the crime consists in making public highways unsafe for travellers and trade caravans, the punishment is deportation from the country.

If anything has been robbed, the guilty parties may be punished by cutting off right hands and on return the left foot.

If, besides interrupting caravans, public highways are made unsafe and those who are guilty are also held to have killed any man or woman, those adjudged guilty may be put to death or crucified, such a sentence being considered a preventative one. But if those guilty repent before being brought before the officers of the law, they may be forgiven, provided that they restore the stolen property; and if they have killed any one, they pay the diyya [in Arabic], that is the amount of money judged by the magistrate having made sure of its being imperative as compensation to be given to the heirs of the murdered.

The Islamic Law defines theft in the sense of stealing a thing considered as the property of another man kept in his shop, etc., or in any other safe place such as a house, or left in the guard of some guardian. Many things are not considered property, such as:

Things which may decay or be wasted as milk, fruits, grain, [not reaped] grass, fish, garden stuff, etc..

Intoxicants which a thief may excuse himself by saying he wanted to split it.

Trifling things, such as fowls, etc.

Books including copies of the Qu’ran.

The public treasure, or bait-el-mal [in Arabic] being a property common to all Muslims, the idea being that an individual Muslim cannot be punished by amputation for an offence of this kind, because, a Muslim, he is entitled when in distress to some share in it.

A creditor may take up to the limit of his claim from a bad debtor without transgression.

In case of theft is proved and the magistrate passes the judgment of cutting off the hand of the thief, it is cut at the joint of the wrist.

This punishment is exacted nowadays in Saudia Arabia and Afghanistan. Only a very few hands were cut for the charge of robbery or theft during the past twenty years. The punishment is so severe that it proved stringent against such transgressions. In Hijaz no case of theft or robbery whatever had been recorded or judged for the last ten years [1957].

Intoxicants, gambling, etc., are forbidden by the Qu’ran and the punishment to be inflicted is whipping, as many stripes as may be ordered by the trying magistrate. The testimony of a gambler or a drunkard is not to be accepted by the court: the Qu’ran’s text is rendered thus:

“Intoxicants and games of chance [gambling] and sacrificing to idols and divining by arrows – so runs the interpretation of the Qu’ran text – are only an abomination, and the devil’s work, shun it therefore that ye may prosper.” [5:90]

“It is the devil who requires to cause enmity and hatred to spring in your midst by means of intoxicants and games of chance, and to keep you off from the remembrance of God and from saying your prayers, therefore abstain from them” [5:91]

The punishment for drinking wine or any intoxicating liquor is whipping, which may consist of as many as eighty stripes. [4]