| Answer:
The punishment of cutting a thief’s hand for stealing must be examined
in the proper context. The verse in question, 5:38-9, mentions two words, Sāriq
and Sāriqah, for the male and female who will have their hand cut off for
stealing. These two words are significant because they are adjectives and in
Arabic language, adjectives as opposed to verbs signify that the trait they
represent is thoroughly present in the person they stand for. Hence, these are
individuals who are thieves by profession and the act they commit constitutes
thievery. Thus, one time acts committed by an individual out of ignorance,
temporary weakness, need, mistake, etc. do not support carrying out this severe
punishment. Hence, if some government carried out this action against someone
who happened to once steal a chicken, in my opinion they were mistaken. However,
if they carried it out against a chicken thief, then the issue could be worthy
of severe punishment. Similarly, in the West the severity of the punishment
increases with the number of offenses committed and degree of the crime. Hence,
‘armed robbery’ receives a harsher punishment because it is considered a felony
not a misdemeanor. Islamic punishments are in fact maximum punishments that can
be given for a particular type of crime. However, this does not mean that this
punishment must be given whenever that type of crime is committed.
Circumstances and context must be examined for each crime. |