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Capital Punishment in Islam | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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The Ministry of Interior’s announced on Saturday the execution of on 47 convicts of Saudi, Egyptian, and Chadian nationalities, under the Sharia law, for perpetrating several crimes across Saudi Arabia. The convicts have been proven guilty and responsible for numerous crimes.

Capital punishment for whoever intentionally kills another human with no true reason is specified in the Islamic law; nevertheless capital punishment affects individuals more than societies as whole; therefore, the victim’s family can choose to pardon the perpetrator if want to.

In Islamic Law 7, crimes are prohibited and each has specified consequential punishment once committed: “Theft, Adultery, Verbal abuse, Consumption of intoxicants, Prostitution, Defection (abandoning one’s religion), and Banditry.

The convicted 47 have been proven guilty of Banditry, which inflicts on a social level and directly harms the community.

On the statement of Banditry religious scholars have referred to a Quran citation that specifically explains on the crime’s fall out [Al-Maidah Ayat: 33]

“The reward of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive to create disorder in the land is only this that they be slain or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off on alternate sides, or they be expelled from the land. That shall be a disgrace for them in this world, and in the Hereafter they shall have a great punishment;”

Security advocacy is another chapter in which Islam did not specify a punishment for the crimes harming it leaving the choice of punishment to what the assigned judge sees fit to sustain the well-being of society and stability of the Muslim nation.

However we must stress that capital punishment still holds room for leniency and tolerance which is a right transferred to the heirs of the victim, whom are rightfully responsible for demanding punishment to whomever killed their deceased. The heirs choose to tolerate or forgive the convict relieving him from capital punishment.