Hudud (Arabic: Øدود ḤudÅ«d, also transliterated hadud, hudood; singular hadd, Øد, literal meaning "limit", or "restriction") is an Islamic concept, based on Quran and Hadiths, that define "crimes against God". These include the religious crimes of adultery, fornication, homosexuality, accusing someone of illicit sex but failing to present four Muslim eye-witnesses, apostasy, consuming intoxicants, transgression, highway robbery and theft.
In Islamic law, that is Sharia, hudud crimes trigger a class of punishments that are fixed by God. These range from public lashing, publicly stoning to death, amputation of hands or public execution. However, public stoning and execution punishments are relatively uncommon in the modern times in most Muslim nations, and are currently witnessed in Muslim nations, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, that follow strictest interpretation of sharia.
Sharia recognizes many other crimes that are not hudud crimes. The non-hudud crimes are considered by sharia as private disputes between two parties. One category of non-hudud crimes is Qisas â€" where retaliation as a punishment is allowed, and the second category is Tazir â€" where the punishment is left to an Islamic judge's discretion.
Overview
Hudud crimes are defined in Quran and Hadiths, and are considered as "claims of God". The sovereign Muslim state had the obligation and responsibility to punish hudud crimes. All other offenses were defined as "claims of [His] servants," and responsibility for prosecution rested on the victim.
Quran
The Qur'an describes several hudud crimes and in some cases the required punishments.The hadd crime of theft is detailed in Quranic verse 5:38:
As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands: a punishment by way of example, from Allah, for their crime: and Allah is Exalted in power.
â€" Quran 5:38
The hadd crime of robbery and civil disturbance against Islam inside a Muslim state, according to Muslim scholars, is covered by Quranic verse 5:33:
The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.
â€" Quran 5:33
The hadd crime of intoxication is covered by Quranic verse 5:90, but its punishment is described in hadiths:
O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination, - of Satan's handwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper.
â€" Quran 5:90
The hadd crime of illicit consensual sex is covered by several verses, including Quranic verse 24:2:
The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication,- flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment.
â€" Quran 24:2
The hadd crime of "unproven accusation of illicit sex or rape" and of "apostasy from Islam" is based on Quranic verses 24:4, 24:6, 9:66 and 16:106, among others.
Hadiths
The sahih hadiths, a compilation of sayings, practices and traditions of Muhammad as observed by his companions, are considered the most trusted source of Islamic law after Quran. They extensively describe hudud crimes and punishments. In some cases where the Quran specifies the hadd crime but does not state the punishment, Islamic scholars have used hadiths to establish the hadd punishment. Some of these are,
Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet said, "The hand should be cut off for stealing something that is worth a quarter of a Dinar or more."
â€" Sahih al-Bukhari, 8:81:780 see also Sahih al-Bukhari, 8:81:781, Sahih Muslim, 17:4175
Anas b. Malik reported that a person who had drink wine was brought to Allah's Apostle. He gave him forty stripes with two lashes. Abu Bakr also did that, but when Umar (assumed the responsibilities) of the Caliphate, he consulted people and Abd al-Rahman said: The mildest punishment (for drinking) is eighty (stripes) and 'Umar their prescribed this punishment.
â€" Sahih Muslim, 17:4226
Narrated Abu Hurayrah: The Prophet said: If he is intoxicated, flog him; again if he is intoxicated, flog him; again if he is intoxicated, flog him if he does it again a fourth time, kill him. AbuDawud said: And there is a similar tradition of Umar ibn AbuSalamah, from his father, on the authority of AbuHurayrah, from the Prophet (peace be upon him): If he drinks wine, flog him if he does it so again, a fourth time, kill him.
â€" Sunan Abu Dawood, 38:4469
Narrated Jabir ibn Abdullah: A man committed fornication with a woman. So the Apostle of Allah ordered regarding him and the prescribed punishment of flogging was inflicted on him. He was then informed that he was married. So he commanded regarding him and he was stoned to death.
â€" Sunan Abu Dawood, 38:4424 see also Sunan Abu Dawood, 38:4421, 38:4426, 38:4429, 38:4433
Hudud versus other category of crimes
Hudud is one of three categories of crimes in Islamic Penal Law:
- Qisas â€" meaning retaliation, and following the principle of "eye for an eye."
- Hudud â€" predetermined or fixed punishments in the Quran.
- Tazir â€" punishment, usually corporal, administered at the discretion of the judge
Hudud offenses include:
- Theft (Sariqa, السرقة), stealing
- Highway robbery (Haraba, Qat' al-Tariq, قطع الطريق), or other forms of mischief against the Muslim state
- Apostasy (Riddah, ردة or Irtidad, ارتداد), the act of leaving Islam to adopt another religion or becoming atheist
- Zina (Zina', الزنا), which includes pre-marital sex, extra-marital sex and homosexuality
- Sexual slander, the false accusation of zina (Qadhf, القذÙ)
- Drinking alcohol, gambling and disputing an Imam/transgression (Shurb al-Khamr, Maisir, Baghi)
Murder, injury and property damage are not hudud crimes
Murder, in Islamic law, is not a hadd crime, but is treated as a private dispute between the murderer and the victim's heirs. The heirs of the victim(s) may have no claims, or may be awarded the right to forgive the murderer, or demand compensation (see Diyya) or demand death of the murderer (see Qisas). The heirs may have no claims in cases where the accused "justifiably kills the victim" such as in cases where the murder victim was engaged in illicit sex, blasphemy or apostasy from Islam. Honor crimes, where a Muslim woman is killed by her family or relatives because her sexual behavior brought dishonor to the family, is treated as a civil matter. Similarly, bodily harm and property damage, are considered as a non-criminal, civil dispute between two parties.
Sunni versus Shia interpretations
There are minor differences in views between the four major Sunni madhhabs about sentencing and specifications for these laws, in the matter of Baghj (dispute or open criticism of a religious authority such as an Imam). Baghj is considered as violation of Quranic verse 49:9, and a hadd crime in all Sunni and Shia schools of law; however, unlike other hadd crimes, the verse suggests that the accused violator of the Islamic law be counseled, and various fiqhs differ on the required process before punishment is handed out. In other categories and cases, Sharia is God's law in Islam, specifying certain punishments for each crime, they are immutable. They are considered claims of God, revealed through Muhammad, and they cannot be altered or abolished by people, jurists or parliament. Anyone once charged with a hadd crime must be pursued by the Muslim state, that charge cannot be retracted, nor can any authority grant a pardon. He or she must be punished.
Punishments
In brief, the punishments include:
- Capital punishments â€" by beheading / crucifixion (for apostasy, for highway robbery with homicide), by stoning (for illicit sex by a married offender)
- Amputation of hands or feet (for theft and highway robbery without homicide)
- Flogging, between 40 to 100 strokes (for sex by unmarried offender, drinking alcohol, gambling, and accusing someone of illicit sex but failing to present Muslim witnesses of the crime)
The hudud punishment for theft was carried out on several hundred individuals, during the first two years when Shari`a was made state law in Sudan between 1983 and 1985 and then was withdrawn from application but not from the law. Flogging for morals charges have been carried out since the codification of Islamic law in Sudan in 1991 without withdrawal from application. Although there were sentences of stoning for adultery during this period, none has been carried out.
The hudud punishment for zinÄʾ in cases of consensual sex, and the punishment of a victim for her failure to present four male Muslim witnesses in cases of rape, are the subjects of a global human rights debate.
Hundreds of women in Afghanistan jails are victims of rape or domestic violence. This has been criticized as leading to "hundreds of incidents where a woman subjected to rape, or gang rape, was eventually accused of zinÄʾ" and incarcerated, which is defended as punishment ordained by God. In Pakistan, over 200,000 zina cases against women, under its Hudood laws, were under process at various levels in Pakistan's legal system in 2005. In addition to thousands of women in prison awaiting trial for zina-related charges, there has been a severe reluctance to even report rape because the victim fears of being charged with zina.
Requirements for conviction
Sharia permits only Muslim eyewitness testimony and confession as evidence. Circumstantial and forensic evidence (i.e., fingerprints, ballistics, body fluids, DNA etc.) is rejected in rape and other hudud cases, only eyewitnesses or confession are acceptable for conviction in hudud crimes. However, indirect evidence such as pregnancy in the accused are acceptable sufficient evidence of zina, in certain cases.
For eyewitness testimony, Hudud crimes require four male witnesses, all providing a consistent testimony. A confession must be repeated four times, and he or she can retract the confession at any time during the trial.
Illegal sex
There are certain standards for proof that must be met in Islamic law for zina punishment to apply. In the Shafii, Hanbali, and Hanafi law schools Rajm (public stoning) or lashing is imposed for the religiously disallowed sex only if the crime is proven, either by four male adults witnessing at first hand the actual sexual intercourse at the same time or by self-confession. For the establishment of adultery, four male Muslim witnesses must have seen the act in its most intimate details. Shia Islam allows substitution of one male Muslim with two female Muslims, but requires that at least one of the witnesses be a male. The Sunni Maliki school of law, and Shia Islamic law considers pregnancy in an unmarried woman, or contested pregnancy in case of married woman, as sufficient evidence of zina. If a woman such as a rape victim or uninvolved person alleging zina fail to provide four consistent Muslim witnesses, he or she can be sentenced to eighty lashes for unfounded accusation of fornication."
Theft
Malik, the originator of the Maliki judicial school of thought, recorded in The Muwatta of many detailed circumstances under which the punishment of hand cutting should, and should not, be carried out. Commenting on the verse regarding theft in the Quran, Yusuf Ali says that most Islamic jurists believe that "petty thefts are exempt from this punishment" and that "only one hand should be cut off for the first theft." Islamic jurists disagree as to when amputation is mandatory religious punishment.
Modernization versus tradition
Scholars suggest that "such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived. However, as societies have since progressed and modernized, they are not suitable any longer." Other scholars write that "here and at other places the Qur'an merely declares that sodomy is such a heinous sin ... that it is the duty of the Islamic State to eradicate this crime and ... punish those who are guilty of it."
It has also been argued that the Hudud portion of Sharia is incompatible with International laws on human rights. However, the trend has been to introduce hudud laws in various Muslim countries. Pakistan and Brunei have adopted hudud laws in 1979 and 2014 respectively. A Washington Times editorial called Pakistan's Hudood ordinance, "a set of laws passed in 1979 in response to pressure from hardline Islamic political groups that odiously punished rape victims while making it difficult to convict the perpetrators".
Liberal movements in Islam and Quranists have called for return to Quran, and removal of punishments declared in Hadith. They reject the Hadiths as a source of law. They suggest that the verses in the Quran should be the only source for formulating Islamic Law, and only laws derived exclusively from the Quran are valid.
The vast majority of Muslims, however, consider hadiths, which describe the words, conduct and example set by Muhammad during his life, as a source of law and religious authority. Similarly, most Islamic scholars believe both Quran and sahih hadiths to be a valid source of Sharia, with Quranic verse 33.21, among others, as justification for this belief.
Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah.
It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.
For vast majority of Muslims, Sharia has historically been, and continues to be derived from both Quran and Sahih Hadiths. The Sahih Hadiths contain isnad, or a chain of guarantors reaching back to a companion of Muhammad who directly observed the words, conduct and example he set â€" thus providing the theological ground to consider the hadith to be a sound basis for sharia, which includes hudud crimes and punishments.
See also
- Islamic criminal jurisprudence
- Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
- Tazir
- Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization
- Hudood Ordinance
- Zina
Further reading
- Muhammad Ata Alsid Sidahmad, The Hudud: the seven specific crimes in Islamic criminal law and their mandatory punishments. ISBN 983-9303-00-7
- Chris Horrie C. and Chippindale P. What Is Islam? Virgin Books, 2003. ISBN 0-7535-0827-3
References
External links
- An Islamic legal analysis of the rape laws in Pakistan
- Women's rights in Pakistan - November 17, 2006 editorial in the Washington Times
- Punishment in Islamic Law: A Critique of the Hudud Bill of Kelantan, Malaysia, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Arab Law Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 3 (1998), pp. 203-234
- Islamization and Legal Reform in Malaysia: The Hudud Controversy of 1992, Maria Luisa Seda-Poulin, Southeast Asian Affairs (1993), pp. 224-242
- Crimes and the Criminal Process, M. Cherif Bassiouni, Arab Law Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3 (1997), pp. 269-286
- Criminal Justice under Shari'ah in the 21st Centuryâ€"An Inter-Cultural View, Michael Bohlander and Mohammad M. Hedayati-Kakhki, Arab Law Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2009), pp. 417-436
- Islamization in Sudan: A Critical Assessment, Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Middle East Journal, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 610-623