The Sentence of Cutting off the Thief's Hand
Our dear student:
Our lesson today is a very important one, it is quite related to the previous lessons.
Is the sentence of Cutting off the thief's hand judged in all cases and conditions of thieving?
Or, are there some cases and conditions which must be considered by the Judge and prevent him from giving the sentence of Cutting off the thief's hand to a condemned thief?
The Almighty God says:{Cut off the hand of the thief, male or female, as a recompense for that which they committed, a punishment by way of example from Allah is All-Powerful, All-Wise}
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 5, Al-Ma’ida (The Table), Verse 38
This sentence appears full of severe torment and cruelness but actually it conceals in its interior the goodness and mercy not only to the thief (male or female) but also to the whole society.
The Commander of faithful, our Master Omar ibn Al-Khatab, (May God be pleased with him), didn’t cut off the hands of thieves during a specific period of rainlessness (drought) and starvation which overwhelmed the Islamic countries during his Era, after he had made sure that the thieves were needy and they stole only to feed themselves and their families' members (their children). So, he offered them from the money house (treasury) of Muslims a sustenance which sufficed them to support their life and made them live at ease, but according to the normal general case, when the Almighty God drove away the epidemic of plague, starvation and drought from the country, he became sure that the money-house (treasury) of the Islam states was enough to meet the life requirements of all the Muslims and non Muslims and sufficed them for a good level of life, therefore, according to this case, if a thief was arrested, the Muslim Judge would give him a sentence of cutting off his hand, applying and submitting to God’s order.
So, in those previous conditions why must the thief's hand be cut off?
To answer this question, we say:
When people in Islamic states live a tolerable level of life which meets the basic life requirements and there is a social warranty for all the individuals without any discrimination in treatment or privileging, thus if a person from this society stole, then his stealing would be due to neither starvation nor neediness but to a wicked desire in his spirit. In this case the thief must be sentenced according to God’s law of cutting his hand.
Accordingly, the sentence of cutting off the thief's hand isn’t unconditional, but the judge must investigate, before judging him for his stealing, to be certain of the reason behind the stealing act. If it was for a sever neediness and starvation, then his hand wouldn’t be cut off, but he would have been granted the subsistence and all the requirements which guarantee a good life to his family, exactly as the eminent scholar M. A. Sheikho (his soul has been sanctified by Al'lah) treated those who stole the sac of wheat, when they came to him afraid of his strength and appealed to him for his mercy.
However, if he stole again, his hand would be cut off, because this act becomes a crime originated from a wicked desire in his spirit so it (this wicked desire) must be uprooted of his spirit.
Cutting off the thief's hand contains a great goodness for the thief himself (male or female) and for the whole society, thus when the thief's hand is cut off, he will heartedly hate and leave that inhumane act, because he knows that if he steals again he will lose the other hand.
This sentence must be executed in a public place such as a market square before a group of the believers and the cut off hand is remained hung down in that public main square before the eyes of people who pass by and see it, having a great lesson through that effective sight. As for children who have the germ of this wicked desire of stealing, they ask their fathers about this cut off hand, and they are answered: O my child, that is the thief's hand, it has been cut off, my son be careful not to steal.
This sight of the cut off hand and its dropped blood has unforgettable impressions, which are full of a great fear of the result of theft acting. In the child's spirit (heart), that impression makes him hate and leave even the thinking of doing such acts at his early age, and when he becomes young, he still has in his mind that fear of what he previously saw and perceived when he was a child. Therefore, this punishment becomes a cure for the theft desire which is folded in the spirit of thief or the child who may steal in future.
Alternatively, they will get rid of this wicked desire, if someone had the desire to steal, he would remember that sight of the cut off hand, then he would look in fear at his dear hand and finally determine not to steal forever, therefore the society would become safe, free from thefts and all the disturbing sequences of this act. All those advantages are resulted just from the cut off hand i.e. applying God's judgment on the thief, so these sublime results which are resulted in the society as a whole and individuals through considering this Divine lesson (cutting of the thief's hand) will be put by the Almighty God as a good deed in the deeds' sheet of that cut off-handed thief.
In addition to that, as we have mentioned above, he himself will not dare to steal again, then he will have a free of wrongdoing spirit and a white heart which enable him to stand before the Almighty God within his prayer attaining the true communication with the Almighty Al'lah, his Provider, that he has repented of committing the wrong deed (theft). There is no wicked deed to stand as a veil between him and his Almighty Creator, he will approach sincerely the Almighty God, thus he will have the Godly Light in his spirit which purifies it from the wicked desires. Finally, his destiny after he passes away will be the Paradise instead of the fires that he would have had if his hand hadn’t been cut and he had lived as a thief and criminal all his life.
The Almighty God says: {And there is life for you in the punishment, O men of understanding, that you may become pious}
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 2, Al-Baqara (The Cow), Verse 179
In the punishment there is a life for the people as they will live happily if they apply God’s order of executing the punishment, thus if the killer was killed and the thief's hand was cut off, then all people would stop committing killing and stealing, and the thief and the killer would see their punishment was the treatment for their spirits to become purified,…
This is the fact; by executing the sentence of theft, and the people see the cut off hand, then the theft wicked desire will be quite moved away from all the individuals of the society, finally they, generation after generation, will live safely.
As for the thief, his heart becomes alive again after he repents of stealing, and the paradise doors are opened for him.
However, if humankind had not abandoned God’s laws and followed their own laws, there would not have been those troubles, neediness, thefts and murders… which are seen nowadays, and which happened only because people followed their laws not God's.
They think that their own laws are merciful and prison sentence is better for the thief than cutting off his hand, but alas their laws bring them more distress, more thefts and those thefts generate murders and violations, that the thief doesn’t fear because he knows that, in case he is arrested, he will be sentenced for his crime to imprisonment not more, moreover he will meet the masters of criminals in the prison, and after he finishes his sentence, he will get out of the prison having his heart filled with the wicked desires of stealing and devastating the society, that society which has a mercy upon him and does not cut off his hand!
Consequently, everyone in this society will complain, whimper and suffer the pains and distress of such crimes which are not judged by God's Law.
The sentence of Cutting off the thief's hand is a Divine law, which contains the complete goodness for the individual and the whole society, it is not unconditional law but it is connected with and conditioned by an accurate social guarantee system, as it was in the era of the noble companions of the Prophet (cpth) and also of the first Ottomans, but later when the Ottomans substituted the Almighty God’s law with their own put laws, they thought that their laws were more merciful than the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate, the All-Wise and the All-knowing Al'lah's one. Therefore, they failed and fell down from their highness losing their dignity and high prestige that their society were pervaded with crimes and corruptions, and the human became an enemy to his human brother.
A time is like its people, and its people are as you see!
Questions:
1- Why didn’t our master Omar cut off the thief's hand during the period of starving in his Era? And how did he treat them?
2- Why must the thief's hand be cut off when the social guarantee is achieved to the whole society?
3- What are the impressions felt by the hearts of people and craved in their spirits especially by the children when they see the thief's cut off hand with its dropped blood?
4- What is the situation of the thief after having his hand cut off ?
5- Explain the following noble Verse: {And there is life for you in the punishment, O men of understanding, that you may become the pious}?
6- What is the thing which has led the human societies to this recently situation of corruptions, immoralities, absolute wrong doings such as thefts, murders…, and etc reaching the maximum level and most kinds of that degeneration?