the name of Allah the beneficent the
most merciful I'd like to welcome you
dear viewers to our series contemporary
issues in which we continue to look at
the variety of issues which face the
Muslim world today you know which are
part of the the the thoughts of the
world in general where the non-muslim
world looks at the Muslim world and
questions the
practices in our previous segment we
began looking at criminal justice the
criminal justice system in Islam we
looked at the issues of murder and how
Islam treats it and addresses
it this in this segment we're going to
be looking at theft the issue of what to
do when somebody steals Muslims are
noted for chopping off hands or often
times in the media they will say hacking
off hands as if Muslims will take a saw
a hack saw and you know saw off people's
hands of course it's not done in this
way but this is the media hype to give
the impression of savagery amongst
Muslims that this is how they deal with
uh the crimes um the fact is yes
According to Islamic law it is mentioned
in the fifth chapter of the Quran verse
38 Allah says there as for thieves both
male and female cut off their hands as
recompense for their deeds and an
exemplary P punishment from
Allah this is there we have no doubt
about it Islam prescribes the amputation
of the right hand of a person who
steals but there are
conditions there are conditions it's not
just applied you know to anybody under
any circumstance at any
time on for for at one point we have to
start off with the issue of the times if
there are times of starvation famine you
know there is some kind of tragedy in
the society people are in a states of
desperation when a person steals under
these circumstances you know just to
survive then the law is not going to be
applied the law will be suspended during
those periods secondly you know if a if
a a worker stole from his boss who
withheld his pay for
example then again the law will not be
applied because he's stealing what is
really
his thirdly if what he takes is
considered to be public property you
know a person uh steals for example the
fittings or or rugs from a mask or uh
public transport something like this
it's wrong punishment will be applied on
that individual but not cutting off the
hand of the thief because he had a part
of that being public property he had a
right in it part of it was his he shared
in that
right
fourthly if the value of what is
taken was less than 10 Dirhams you know
then they're not going to cut off the
hand for it and if the item stolen was
not in its proper place that is uh if
something was left accidentally you know
person makes ablution washes their hands
whilst praying for prayer and they leave
their watch somewhere and somebody
snatched it then they won't apply there
because there's Temptation issue of
Temptation you know but meaning that the
law is applied really for the person who
is the professional criminal the
pickpocket because there's no temptation
in picking the pocket this is something
a person has to train himself for you
know or herself so hands will be cut for
that type of crime person breaks into a
hole home or Robs a Bank I mean this is
not something things out of place
temptation is there no but what we find
is
that when the
uh when the the law is applied you find
the society that the the rate of theft
drops drastically as it did in Saudi
Arabia when it was applied as it did in
the Sudan when it was applied and it
creates a sense of of sec security
within the society you know where people
are not obliged to latch up all their
doors and put on burglar alarms and all
these kinds of things that is common in
in in Western societies today you know
where people live in fear of of
break-ins you know everybody's home on
the Block everybody you know is
experiencing
this now one point should also be
mentioned is that when the hand is cut
off it's not sa off again by a hacksaw
but it is
amputated and uh if the
person repeats the crime then the left
foot is removed at the
ankle the left foot is removed at the
ankle again not sa off but amputated you
know and um if a person you know
continues uh crime even after all of
that then the law does permit his
execution because this is obviously a
criminal who cannot be reformed there's
no chance to stop this individual only
thing is to put him down like a a wild
animal who just you know is a danger to
the society and just no way of
controlling it so that individual is his
life is taken for the protection of the
society and the security of the society
as a whole and as I said I mean the the
punishment of course it may seem very
very harsh but it carries with it as
Islamic punishments carry with them
deterrent value the idea of losing one's
hand it is something which will cause a
person to think think twice you know you
go to jail for a year or six months or
whatever for stealing you know people
are willing to take the chance but to
lose your
hand or lose your
foot these these situations will cause a
person to think more than once before
committing such crimes now another area
of criminal punishment is that for
adultery and
fornication where Islam prescribes for
adultery stoning to death for
fornication 100 lashes and one point to
note is that these the application of
these laws whether it is cutting off the
hand of the thief or whether it is
executing the murderer or storing
stoning to death the fornicator
or 100
lashes uh for one who was not married
who was involved in illicit sexual
relations these are done publicly you
know as the LA prescribes that people
from the Believers should be present to
observe
it not for entertainment it's not the
idea is not for entertainment of the
public but for them to see Allah's laws
in application and this the sight of it
helps to to enforce or to reinforce
course in the minds of the people you
know that God's laws are being applied
and we should avoid these kinds of
crimes and Western Law used to be
applied that way
also it used to be applied publicly you
know the criminal was executed
publicly however when it shifted
to punishment done inside of a dungeon
inside of a prison nobody sees it it's
only a statistic in the paper so and so
is executed for this crime then it
doesn't have that deterrent effect that
it would if it were done publicly of
course it still has
some but the impact is not as great and
this is why this is a condition for the
application of Islamic law that it be
done
publicly now when we come to the issues
of fornication and
adultery and the West's attitude towards
Islamic application of these laws they
look at this as being really outmoded
you know how to do this in these times
the reason for this is that there has
been a change in moral standards of the
in the west you know where the president
himself of the country you know
presidents of these countries I mean may
be known for adultery and fornication
the society accepts it it elects them
knowing these things I mean you go back
20 years ago 30 years ago it was was
inconceivable you know that a president
in in these countries or prime ministers
you know could be elected or could
become head of state knowing that they
were involved in these kind of things
however in our times with the change in
in the morality of the society this has
become acceptable it's become a norm so
naturally in a society where adultery
and fornication have become Norms
they're accepted nobody questions it you
know um it causes the breakup of
marriages and things like this however
it's not long it's been decriminalized
it's no longer a
crime because it's consenting adults
consenting adults are involved in it and
you know that's the this is the
principle which governs the rightness
and wrongness of sexual relations as
long as they as they say it's between
consenting adults then really the
society has no business to punish them
or to be involved to punish them or or
to get involved in their affairs is on
the basis of religion it's religion
which says no this shouldn't take place
Etc and according to Western systems now
they're secular which means that
religion has no place to play in the
application of law so with this kind of
an attitude where you know we are
evolved
beings our great grandparents were
monkeys
well monkeys don't have any problems in
fornication we don't even see issues of
adultery because they don't get married
so why should we be making all of this I
mean it's something which we have
introduced we're really only animals
anyway so no big deal so the idea now
that of punishing somebody for this this
is something abhorent in many Western
systems I'm not saying that every single
individual in the west holds these views
in fact there are many people in the
west who are very much saddened sickened
by the changes in the moralities of the
society but I'm just talking about the
system and as it is portrayed through
the media and through the the
international political uh systems you
know whether it is through the UN or
whatever these attitudes are being
promoted especially promoted in the
Muslim world where there is a resistance
to this kind of thinking and this kind
of approach to
life however when we go back to the
actual application of this law within
the Muslim system we have to recognize
that this application is not just across
the board you know somebody accuses
somebody of fornication or adultery and
all of a sudden the law is being applied
no no no Islamic law requires that there
be four
Witnesses for the application of this
law whether it's lashing because it's
fornication people were not married or
it's stoning to death in the case of
adultery where people are having illicit
sex who are married
these laws are not
applied unless there are four
Witnesses four people who have seen them
in the act and for Reliable Witnesses
not just anybody you pull out of the
woodwork you can pay them some money and
you know but people who are known to be
just and righteous people in the society
you know they're not known to be corrupt
and these type of
things so without those four Witnesses
the law cannot be applied and because of
that the number of cases of people
stoned to death and you know lashed for
adultery very few over the last 1,400
years of application of Islamic law from
the time of the Prophet may God's peace
and bless be upon him until today very
very few cases they can be counted you
know within the tens and the
20s why because the evidence for it is
very difficult to
establish now
now what is the evidence the evidence
has to be a confession people
confess they're caught and they
confess
or a
woman
uh gives birth to a baby she becomes
pregnant her husband is away he's out of
the country he's been out of the country
for the last nine months and she's
delivering a baby you know
these are the signs so where there's
clear evidence you know then the law
will be applied but accusation is not
sufficient you know the woman for
example who uh you know she is caught
she's pregnant she points the finger and
says he did it they're not going to
they'll question him did you do it if he
said no they cannot apply the
law why because she could be pointing at
somebody she doesn't like maybe it's not
that person at all but you know the
person who was involved who she loves
she wants to save him but there's
somebody she like to get back and so she
says he did it and in fact he didn't so
these kind of accusations not acceptable
in fact from Islamic law perspective if
you accuse somebody and you don't have
these Witnesses then you are lashed 80
lashes publicly so it's considered very
serious sexual slander to slander
somebody saying that they've committed
adultery or they committed fornication
is very very serious if you don't have
the evidence then According to Islamic
law you have to be
silent now in a case where a husband or
wife wife catch each other in the ACT
they don't have the evidence then they
can raise their case before the court
and their marriage can be dissolved on
the basis of
it right but the law will not be applied
of punishment to either party unless the
evidence is there unless there's a
there's a confession there's a pregnancy
or
Witnesses so basically the law is a
deterrent as we said it's rarely apply
but it's a deterrent something to
discourage people and as a result of
that you find that the rate is quite low
in Muslim countries in general I mean
when we go back and we look at
uh public uh displays of affection which
have become a norm in Western societies
where people hold hands they they kiss
and and hug each other publicly in the
society and you know I mean you go to a
park Etc in the west I mean you don't
know what could we find happening there
you go there with your family sometimes
very embarrassing you know because this
is becoming Norm people don't feel
anything wrong with it you know shaking
the hands of your guests female guests
the man his man comes with his wife
shaking her hand even kissing the wife
of somebody else I mean it's considered
part of normal social you know etiquette
in the west whereas from Islamic
perspective this is discouraged it's
discouraged strongly discouraged why
because these kinds of interactions can
lead to uh corruption you know and we
have people especially people getting
together you know in states where
they're involving using alcohol things
like this it's very easy for uh the the
limits to be broken there's a case a few
months back you know of a couple a man
and a woman they met each other they're
flying to um to from L from New York to
to London they never they didn't know
each other they they happen to be
sitting next to each other in business
class you know they have a few drinks
next thing you know they're involved in
these activities cover themselves with a
blanket people around them are saying
stop stop you know the stewardesses are
coming stop stop don't do this so they
went on through it of course when they
arrived they were arrested but something
like this you know public you know
sexual intercourse in public in front of
people like this I mean this happens I
mean
is because of this relaxation this moral
decadence which has spread and where
these kind of practices you know though
maybe objected to in this instance but
people are going to movies and watching
this I mean this is the the movies are
promoting this this is you know
fornication adultery is the norm for
movie goers today so if people are
constantly bombarded with this as being
a norm the movie stars are doing it you
know and they're they're portraying
people from all walks of
life Common People normal people but
everybody seems to be involved in one
way or another in fornication or
adultery and this is what the movies are
telling us then naturally people will be
encouraged in their personal lives to be
involved in such practices and
activities so Islam looks at this the
family structure as being very important
important as in the case of theft and
the cutting off the hands of the thief
security of the society is looked at as
very important in fact the thief who is
involved in armed robbery According to
Islamic law that person can be executed
when you take out weapons against the
society there's danger you're creating a
a major security threat in those
circumstances such people may be
executed rape you know weapons are taken
out and people are forced
it's death this to to keep this kind of
harm from the society and maintain a
level of security similarly for the sake
of the family protection of the family
family is the core of the society once
that breaks down you're finished so in
order to protect that family the laws
are very strong Islam
encourages uh you know marriage
early it permits polygamy you know all
of the things that are there divorce is
not
inaccessible so where people have
problems Etc these things can be worked
out there are other options for them so
beyond that now any kind of illicit sex
from Islamic perspective is considered a
grave crime and as such the punishment
is very very
grave and I should mention as we close
that the punishment for adultery is not
something which Islam introduced meaning
the prophet muhammmad sallam introduced
it this is found in Mosaic law also it's
been around it's not something newly
introduced Islam revived it brought it
back to the Forefront and established it
and has kept it alive until today where
in other societies it has been lost the
idea is now considered
outmoded with that dear viewers I'd like
to thank you for being with us in this
segment of our program contemporary
issues I hope that some light has been
shed on these issues for you that you
can better understand the Islamic stance
in regards to these issues and how they
are relevant today and how Society still
will benefit from it and will continue
to benefit from it until the last day
with that dear viewers I'd like to bid
you
farewell