There are four categories of punishment that criminals may be subject to. These are :

1. Hadud : This punishment is the right of Allah (swt), and it is a retribution for seven different crimes, which no-one can forgive. These are:

a) Fornication or adultery (zina) : The punishment is 100 lashes for fornication (i.e. pre-marital sex) or stoning to death for adultery (where the fornicator/s is/are married).

b) False Accusation (qadhf) : Where a false charge of adultery is insinuated against a man or woman. The punishment is 80 lashes.

c) Theft (sariqa) : Where theft is the crime. The punishment is cutting off of the hand, provided seven conditions are fulfilled concerning the circumstances of the crime.

d) Consumption of Intoxicants (khamr) : Where the crime is for example drinking wine. The punishment is 80 lashes.

e) Rebellion against the State (al-baghi) : Where individuals or groups revolt against the authority of the State, e.g. motivation of division of the Ummah. The punishment is death.

f) Apostasy (al-irtidad) : Where a Muslim changes his or her belief, and refuses to return after advice is given. The punishment is death.

g) Highway Robbery (hiraba) : Where robbers attack passers by on the open highways. The punishment is cutting off the hand and foot on opposite sides, or death if the crime led to the death of the victim.

In these issues, if someone is proven to be guilty of the crime and all the conditions for the punishment are fulfilled, there is no leniency or pardon for the perpetrator. Muhammad (saw) said, “By Allah, if Fatimah the daughter of Muhammad stole, I would cut her hand.”

2. Al-Jynayaat (or qisas): This concerns crimes against the rights of an individual where the victim has the option to demand punishment or forgive the criminal and demand blood money (diyyah). It concerns mainly the issues of killing and bodily harm, whether unlawful or accidental. For example, if someone deliberately committed murder, the family of the victim could demand that the perpetrator be killed, or they could forgive them and demand blood money. The value of blood money varies depending on the nature of the crime:

a) Blood money from the one who kills with intention is 100 camels, 40 of which must be pregnant, or the equivalent monetary value.

b) Blood money from the one who kills unintentionally i.e. manslaughter, is the equivalent of 100 camels.

It is narrated by al-Nissai and Darimi that Abu Bakr reported that the Messenger of Allah (saw) wrote to the inhabitants of Yemen and there was in his letter : “Whosoever kills a believer unjustly will suffer retaliation for what his hand has done unless the relatives of the murdered man consent otherwise. And therein it was : A man shall be killed for the murder of a woman. And therein it was : For the murder of a life, there is bloodwit of 100 camels...”

Another hadith narrated by Imam Nissai mentions that every part of the body has blood money, for example, the blood money for the eyes is equivalent of 50 camels.

3. Al-Ta‘azir : This is considered the right of the community. It covers those issues which are not part of the qisas or hadud, but which affect the right of the community such as shouting in the streets, cheating in the market place etc. The judge presiding over the case will study the severity and nature of the crime and prescribe a punishment to match it from his own ijtihad (i.e. study of the Islamic texts).The punishments may range from anywhere between a warning to death. One famous example happened in the time of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra), where he punished a scholar who gave false testimony. He ordered that the scholar should have his head shaved, his face painted black, and be paraded semi-clothed in front of the people while sitting backwards on a donkey.

4. Al-Mukhalafat : This covers the areas of the rights of the State. Here the crime is committed when a person or group contravenes a law which the State has enacted, such as breaking the speed limit or parking in no-parking areas. The punishment is at the discretion of the judge, based on his own ijtihad or the adoption of the State.