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Corporal Punishment Verses in the Qur'an are to be Reinterpreted to Counter Violent Extremist Practices from Within the Islamic Juristic Tradition
Author(s) -
Azmeh Wayel
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
digest of middle east studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.225
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1949-3606
pISSN - 1060-4367
DOI - 10.1111/dome.12066
Subject(s) - islam , ideology , punishment (psychology) , corporal punishment , adultery , law , forgiveness , state (computer science) , political science , history , sociology , criminology , philosophy , politics , theology , psychology , social psychology , algorithm , computer science
Corporal punishments in the Qur'an , also grouped under the Arabic term Ḥudūd , have been understood as a set of preordained harsh punishments due whenever their conditions are met. They not only served mainly as a deterrent, but also as a penal code in traditional religious Islamic law books. This essay argues that those Ḥudūd‐Qur'anic corporal punishments can be reinterpreted to only represent an upper limit never to be exceeded, favoring more lenient noncorporal punishments, or even no punishment at all by the state. For the Qur'an recommends forgiveness for murder, theft, brigandage, slander, and adultery. If this powerful Qur'anic paradigm is to be well understood and popularized, it would contribute to eroding the ideological basis of the extremists’ propaganda machine. It would also help Muslims connect to their Islamic tradition in a modern pluralistic society without undue tension. An historic overview of the penal culture at the time of the Qur'anic revelation, and then through its modern evolution in various geographic locations, including Muslim majority societies is used to contextualize the discussion. Two possible counter arguments based on Muslim tradition are addressed, namely the concept of abrogation in the Qur'an , and the Hadith (Prophetic traditions) undermining this reading of the Qur'an .