¶ The Punishment of Theft (Amputation) in Islam
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Hudud: Islamic laws stating the limits ordained by Allah and including the deterrent punishments for serious crimes.
Praise be to Allah, who reveals the truth and is the wisest of judges. Peace and blessings be upon His trustworthy Prophet, his pure family, and his righteous companions.
The preacher Ahmed Al-Sayed, may Allah save him, says:
Before there is a sword and a whip to enforce the Hudud, it is important that there be a voice calling for the truth to soften the hearts to accept the judgment of Allah, the Almighty, and to accept His law. This is a duty of reform and a duty of preaching, and it is one of its priorities in today's discourse, especially in countries that have been liberated from a certain oppression or tyranny and can be ruled by Islam, even gradually. -- Explanation of the book "Al-Siyasah Al-Shar'iyyah" by Ibn Taymiyyah.
And I say that the devils of the human beautify falsehood for people and argue for it to turn them away from the path of Allah and His law:
Do not eat of what is not slaughtered in Allah’s Name. For that would certainly be ˹an act of˺ disobedience. Surely the devils whisper to their ˹human˺ associates to argue with you.1 If you were to obey them, then you ˹too˺ would be polytheists. --Quran Translation [6:121]
¶ Theft Outside of Dispute
The command to cut off the hand of the thief is mentioned in the Quran and the Hadith, and it was implemented by the Prophet ﷺ and the caliphs after him. The judges of Islam have ruled by it from his time ﷺ to our time, and it was not a matter of debate except in our later times when the people of falsehood overpowered the people of Islam.
As for male and female thieves, cut off their hands for what they have done—a deterrent from Allah. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise. (Al-Ma'idah - 38)
¶ Injuries from Theft
It is said that cutting off the hand of the thief is a severe harm without justification, and they do not look at the harm of injuries during theft and what accompanies that such as resistance by the victim or harm imposed on him regardlessly, as well as the harm of injuries to the police during their search and pursuit of criminals, making their work more dangerous and deadly due to the increase in thieves and the absence of deterrent punishment.
400,000 people annually in America between 1979-1986 were injured by robberies, and 21% of them had serious injuries.
¶ Deaths from Theft
Some thefts lead to murder when the the house owner notices the theft or when the owner of the property resists, in many cases the thief may resort to murder to escape.
According to American statistics, in Orange County, California, 22 people were killed in 1991 during theft.
A study dated 1985 shows the death rate for robbery crimes [1]:
¶ Forcing the Innocent to Bear the Cost of Abandoning Hudud
The system that denies the Sharia and builds prisons, establishes human made laws, and manages them to solve crimes is indeed committing another crime by imposing the cost of judges, detectives, jailers, prisons, food, and everything related to them on innocent people who have not sinned. These expenses are paid from the people's money, so they lose their money twice: directly through theft and through paying the expenses of the system dedicated to combating theft.
¶ The Cost of Walls and Doors
The more theft increases in a country, the more its people will tend to increase the iron of their doors or the thickness of their wood, buy stronger and better locks, raise walls, and put stronger and sharper fences. All this is the cost of abandoning the Sharia laws in Hudud.
¶ Spending on Security
If security increases, the need for guard expenses, security companies, cameras, and alarm devices decreases, and peace of mind and saftey of society increase. If security decreases, people's fears increase, expenses increase, and people are forced to use banks that, when you entrust them with your money, may consume it or speculate against you (they lend to those who have no money and do not save, so they buy goods or real estate and raise prices) and we have seen fatwas (Islamic rulings) that permit depositing in -Sharia forbidden- usurious banks for the sake of security. Imagine that.
¶ Insurance Companies
Undoubtedly, when risk increase, the temptations of insuring money increase, and this benefits the forbidden insurance companies that rely on profiting from people's fear and deceiving them with uncertainty or ambiguity. The Arabic term for that being 'Garar' (غرر)
¶ Those Who Demand the Suspension of Hudud
Are those who call for the suspension of Hudud prepared to bear the cost and consequences of the diversion from it? or they just want to impose man-made laws that have been proven to fail to protect society and led them to destruction?
¶ Deterring Gangs
Theft gangs recruit new members, tempting them with money and gains. But if a handless person walks among us, the fire of evil propaganda for these people will abate, and their influence will be cut off due to the severity of the just punishment.
¶ The Rate of Solving Theft Cases
What surprised me is that the rate of solving theft cases in one of the studies does not exceed 30%, and in car thefts, it is barely 10%. [2]
In 2006, reports of thefts reached a rate of one report per minute.
According to the 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 447,403 robberies were reported to the police at the rate of one per minute in the United States [3]
In Britain, 50% of violent theft crimes were recorded against unknown perpetrators.
Half of robbery offences (50.3%) were closed in the year ending March 2024 due to no suspect having been identified [4]
And only slightly more than 6% were convicted in the trials.
the percentage of offences with a charge/summons rose across all offence types, except for robbery (which remained the same at 6.5%).
While 70% of theft crimes (without violence) were recorded against unknown perpetrators.
¶ The Rate of Recidivism and Repeated Crime
The prisons that flourished in later times have become schools for crime and a point of meeting and cooperation for criminals. Many people who enter prison return to it, and this is called recidivism, a known phenomenon. [5]
There is a known saying in the Arabic world, "a graduate of prisons," the environment in prison has demonestrate the utter failure in reforming people and deterring them from crime; it is almost a school for criminals.
According to American statistics, perpetrators of theft crimes using force (robbery) were among the highest criminals who repeated theft during their conditional release (17%). [6]
¶ Spending on the Judicial System, Police, and Prisons
The direct government cost for correctional facilities and the criminal justice system was $295.6 billion in 2016, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Nearly half of these funds—$142.5 billion—are dedicated to police protection. The next largest share of this expense—$88.5 billion—is the cost of operating the nation’s prisons, jails, and parole and probation systems. The remainder—$64.7 billion—is spent on the judicial and legal systems. [7]
¶ The Ruling on the Death Penalty
It is necessary here to mention that the death penalty in cases of intentional murder, as called for in some countries, is an illegitimate ruling in matters of murder among people, because the difference between the legitimate retribution and the death penalty executed by modern states is vast.
In legitimate retribution, the family () of the murdered have the choice between killing the murderer, forgiving him, or accepting blood money. A person can kill another person, then repent, and his family (extended family) pays the blood money, and he walks among the people the next day. Many murder cases in illegitimate courts take years, even if the relatives of the victim forgives the murderer like in Marcellus Williams case. [8]
¶ Cutting Off the Hand in Previous Books
- Cutting off the hand of a woman who defended her husband by harming the attacker in the Torah:
When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity. -- Deuteronomy 25:11-12
- Cutting off the hands of Yissakhar of Kfar Barkai for his disobedience in the Talmud. [9]
¶ Cutting Off the Hand in Europe
A severed hand was displayed in a Catholic church in Germany. [10]
One of the sites mentions that the punishment of amputation existed in Europe.
https://strangeremains.com/2014/04/06/a-criminals-relic-the-macabre-history-of-severed-hands/
¶ The Application of Sharia by Countries
Many countries have limited application of Sharia laws in theft
Countries that apply Sharia in criminal cases are in blue - Wikipedia. [11]
¶ Saudi Arabia
Amnesty International called for the suspension of a sentence of cross amputation in Saudi Arabia. [12]
¶ United Arab Emirates
A sentence of hand amputation was issued in the UAE in 2004. [13]
¶ UAE Penal Code and Sharia Law
Article No. (1) in the Federal Penal Code, which applies to all parts of the country, states the following: "The provisions of Islamic Sharia shall apply to crimes of Hudud, Qisas, and Diyah (blood money), and criminal and disciplinary crimes shall be determined according to the provisions of this law and other penal laws." [14]
¶ The Practical Possibility of Implementing Hudud in Theft
After many years of oppressive secular state rule, many people consider it the only model of governance and imagine the state as a president with few councils managing the country with one law and one color.
Imagine if you had to make one dish for a group of people, some of whom do not eat red meat, others do not eat chicken, others do not eat fish, others do not want spices, others do not want onion, others do not want parsley, and you want one dish that suits them all. This would either be a dish that no one likes or they eat it reluctantly and resentfully.
¶ Al-Mansur and Imam Malik
When Caliph Al-Mansur offered Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, to make his book Al-Muwatta (موطأ مالك) a constitution for the caliphate, Imam Malik did not accept, even though it was his own book and he believed it to be correct. He did not accept imposing his opinion on all people because people had learned from other schools and settled on other opinions.
¶ Differences in Laws Between Cities in the Same Country
In many countries, laws differ between states, and in some, between cities. For example, in the United States, cities have the authority to enact some laws called City Code or City Ordinance. In America, a killer faces a prison sentence in one state, and if he does the same crime a few meters away in another state, he may face the death penalty.
In some countries, there are residential complexes governed by laws different from the country's laws. For example, the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh has freedoms different from other places.
What prevents the people of a town or neighborhood from deciding that theft in their area is punished by amputation, as stated in the wise law of Allah and as implemented by the Prophet of Allah, peace be upon him?
¶ Legal Division Between Emirates in the United Arab Emirates
There is a legal division in the United Arab Emirates:
As for those who steal in Dubai, the Public Prosecution, and then the court, treat the theft incident as a theft punishable under the Penal Code, and no one looks into the conditions of the jurists or looks for doubts to ward off the punishment of theft. The same applies to the rest of the Hudud, Qisas, and Diyah crimes. If someone is caught with a girl with whom he had a sexual relationship in Dubai, no one asks him whether he was married or not, and no one asks the girl about that. The incident is considered a crime of indecent assault with consent, while in the rest of the country's emirates, they are asked because the incident is originally considered adultery. If it is found that the legal conditions for considering their act as adultery are not met, or there is a doubt that wards off the punishment of adultery, the incident is treated as a crime of indecent assault with consent. [15]
¶ The Prophet and the Jews
The Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him, is to leave the disbelievers to judge among themselves, and the Jews in Medina had their fortresses where they judged according to their distorted law.
They eagerly listen to falsehood and consume forbidden gain.1 So if they come to you ˹O Prophet˺, either judge between them or turn away from them. If you turn away from them, they cannot harm you whatsoever. But if you judge between them, then do so with justice. Surely Allah loves those who are just. (Al-Ma'idah - 42)
It is known in the Islamic jurisprudence that it is not forbidden for Christians and Jews to drink, sell, buy, or transport wine, even if they pass through Muslim lands.
It was narrated with its chain of transmission from Suwayd bin Ghaflah that Bilal said to Umar: "Your workers take wine and pigs in the kharaj." He said: "Do not take them from them, but appoint them to sell them, and take from the price." End of quote.
Muslims would be better leaving freedoms for the People of the Book and those who enter into their covenant, and in return, Muslims have the freedom to implement the law of their Lord in their areas.
¶ International Sanctions
European countries have imposed sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied Westbank because they usurp people's lands and the European have not imposed sanctions on the entire country, even though Israeli law allows and encourages such practice. Will they impose sanctions on an entire Muslim country because some neighborhoods implement the law of Allah? This is shouldn't happen, but Allah knows best.
¶ The Comprehensive Sharia
Undoubtedly, the Sharia came as a comprehensive system, and the punishment of theft was not the one thing that Sharia law have brought. Before it, the right of the poor to Zakat, the right to revive the dead land (not owned by anyone) before the modern secular state system took control of all lands and prevented people from it, the right to explore for and extract earth resources and pay only one-fifth to the Islamic treasury at most, the right to sell in the wide streets without harming the pedestrians, and the right to sell without paying taxes and customs were revealed also in Sharia law.
All these rights make the need for theft rare for those who accept wickedness and betrayal. In the research on Sharia rights that people have neglected, I advise listening to Prof. Dr. Jamel Akbar, who has authored and discussed the suitability of Sharia for our time in his lectures and books.
¶ ISIS - "And if their leaders do not rule by the Book of Allah, He will make them fight among themselves."
One of the most important aspects of implementing the law of Allah is avoiding internal fighting among Muslims and closing the door to the pretext used by criminals and Khawarij to justify killing Muslims for not implementing Hudud. The hadith clearly indicates the danger of internal fighting due to abandoning the commands of Allah, the Almighty.
In the hadith narrated by Abdullah bin Umar from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him:
They do not break their covenant with Allah and His Messenger, but Allah will enable their enemies to overpower them and take some of what is in their hands. Unless their leaders rule according to the Book of Allah and seek all good from that which Allah has revealed, Allah will cause them to fight one another. -- Narrated by Ibn Majah [16]
¶ Public Relations and Removing The Blame
We have seen many criminals, murderous tyrants receive a warm welcome in international forums despite their convictions and the exposure of their crimes. They cover up these crimes committed without right by paying huge sums of people's money to public relation companies to improve their image. In our struggle against injustice, we can spend some money to show the greatness of Sharia and refute the criminal campaign against it. We spend it seeking the reward of Allah instead of it being in the war against Allah and turning people away from His law.
¶ Does the Loss of Power and Empowerment Justify Stopping the Limits?
It was narrated in the Sunan of Abu Dawud that the Jews came to the Prophet to judge a case of adultery, and the ruling of the Torah agreed with the ruling of the Quran, but they did not implement it. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said to them: "What prevents you from stoning them?" They said: "Our authority has gone, so we disliked killing." [17]
¶ Conclusion
This article is a defense of Sharia and a demonstration of its greatness and superiority over all human laws and regulations. Instead of being ashamed and evading its implementation, we should be proud of it and confront our opponents with it.
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
A study dated 1985 shows the death rate for robbery crimes ↩︎
https://www.statista.com/statistics/194213/crime-clearance-rate-by-type-in-the-us/ ↩︎
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/crime-outcomes-in-england-and-wales-2023-to-2024/crime-outcomes-in-england-and-wales-2023-to-2024 ↩︎
Prison as a Criminal School: Peer Effects and Criminal Learning behind Bars ↩︎
Recidivism of felons on probation, 1986-89 Statistics for the year 1989, p.6 ↩︎
https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/the-economic-costs-of-the-u-s-criminal-justice-system/ ↩︎
Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors and the victim’s family asking that he be spared ↩︎
https://www.sefaria.org/Pesachim.57b.1?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en ↩︎
https://www.anorak.co.uk/335542/strange-but-true/mummified-perjury-hand-stolen-from-german-church.html ↩︎
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_of_Sharia_by_country ↩︎
Saudi Arabia: King urged to commute “cross amputation” sentences ↩︎
The ruling on flogging a girl accused of adultery in the UAE with a hundred lashes.. but how was the ruling issued? ↩︎
Flogging Sentence in UAE -- Arabic ↩︎