the Teaching of the Quran (Rome: Biblical Institute Press,
1985); Annemarie Schimmel, “Creation and Judgment in
the Koran and in Mystico-Poetic Interpretation.” In We
Believe in One God, edited by Annemarie Schimmel and
Abdoljavad Falaturi, 149–177 (New York: Seabury Press,
1979); Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Thalabi, Arais al-maja-
lis fi qisas al-anbiya, or “Lives of the Prophets.” Translated
by William M. Brinner (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002).
crescent See moon.
crime and punishment
A criminal act is one that involves a serious
violation of social or moral laws and requires
the state or some other official authority to hold
legal proceedings and punish the guilty person or
persons. The laws may be based on social norms
and customs, legislation by political authorities,
or interpretations of commandments attributed
to a supramundane power or deity. A crime can
therefore be defined as a threat to the social and
political order or even as an offense against God.
In Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh)—based on
Quranic revelation, the sUnna (custom) of mUham-
mad and the first Muslims, the consensus of reli-
gious jurists, and legal reasoning—there are only
six crimes that warrant punishment as offenses
against God: 1) adUlte ry, 2) false accusation of
adultery, 3) drinking wine, 4) theft, 5) highway
robbery, and 6) apostasy (opinion is not unani-
mous on this crime, however). The punishments
for anyone found guilty of these crimes by a quali-
fied Muslim judge are severe; they are not left for
God to decide, as is the case for lesser sins and
transgressions, nor can they be reduced. Adultery
is to be punished by flogging or death by stoning,
false accusation of adultery and drinking wine by
flogging, and theft by amputation of a hand or
foot. According to most legal schools, apostasy
and highway robbery involving homicide require
the death penalty, but highway robbery without
homicide is punished as a theft would be.
Such corporal punishments were called “God’s
boundaries” (hudud Allah), a term borrowed from
the qUran, where it was used in reference to mar-
riage and family laws that should not be trans-
gressed (Q 2:187). In Islamic jurisprudence, the
meaning expanded to include these corporal pun-
ishments, indicating that such punishments had
the force of divine will behind them, not society’s.
But classifying them as “boundaries” suggests that
jurists had a sense that hudud cases had to meet
stringent standards of justice before a judgment of
guilt could be pronounced. Thus, in cases of adul-
tery, four male witnesses were stipulated, which
made proving that such an offence had occurred
difficult. Also, the penalty of flogging for bearing
false witness in adultery cases legally protected
the accused. In cases of theft, the punishment
of amputation was not to be enforced when the
perpetrator stole to stay alive or when the stolen
property was of little value or illegal.
Homicide was condemned in the strongest
terms in both the Quran and hadith, but it has
not been classed as a crime that was subject to the
hudud penalties. Premeditated murder was classed
as a major sin forbidden by God that would be
punished on JUdgment day (Q 4:93; 17:33; 25:68–
69). In addition, relatives of the victim were given
the right of retaliation on the basis of the principle
of “a life for a life,” and they were given the right
to grant clemency, which could not be done when
the crime was subject to the hudud penalties. In
cases of manslaughter or unintentional homicide,
the guilty party was required to compensate the
family of the deceased for their loss by freeing
a slave and paying a fine, or “blood money” (Q
4:92). For other offenses, judges were allowed to
impose punishments at their discretion, but in
theory, punishment should not exceed the least of
the hudud penalties in severity.
Most nations with Muslim-majority popula-
tions today have adopted criminal codes and penal
systems that are based on Western models. A few
selectively apply the prescribed Islamic punish-
ments, usually in conjunction with governmentK 174 crescent