1. Punishments are prescribed for only five crimes by the shari‘ah. They are: fornication, falsely accusing someone of fornication, theft, murder and injury and creating disorder in the land. It is generally understood that the shari‘ah has also prescribed punishment for drinking, apostasy and blasphemy against the Prophet (sws). I have argued that this is totally baseless. There is no punishment for these crimes in the shari‘ah. All these issues relate to ijtihad and whatever opinion is formed about them will be on this basis.
5. Though diyat is an everlasting law which must be obeyed in all times by all Muslim societies, its quantity, nature and other related affairs have been left to the ma‘ruf (custom) of a society. According to this directive, each society is bound to follow its own ma‘ruf. Since no law about diyat exists in our society, our rulers can adopt the custom of the Arab society or can legislate afresh keeping in view the circumstances and expediencies of our society. No objection whatsoever can be raised against this as per the Islamic shari‘ah.
7. The punishment for fornication and theft mentioned in the Qur’an is an extreme punishment for these crimes, and is to be administered to the criminals when the crime has been committed in its complete form and a criminal does not deserve any lenience viz a viz the circumstances in which he committed the crime. The most important thing in this regard is his religious awareness. This punishment cannot be given to those who are non-Muslims or are Muslims by birth but because of a lack of awareness of their religion are akin to non-Muslims. The reason for this is that the purpose of the punishment is not merely to root out the crime but also to inflict the scourge of God on these criminals and make them an example to others. These were people who had submitted themselves to God and His Messenger with full awareness, pledged obedience to them, accepted their religion as their religion. Despite this, they were incriminated with crimes such as theft and fornication to the extent that God exposed them and matters reached the courts of law.
9. Except for fornication, crimes for which punishment is prescribed by the shari‘ah are proven through all means that are universally accepted by legal ethics. Consequently, circumstantial evidence, medical examinations, post mortem reports, finger prints, DNA tests, testimony of witnesses, confession of criminals, oaths and various other similar means form permissible evidence in the matter of these crimes just as they are in the matter of other common crimes. There is nothing in the Qur’an and Sunnah contrary to this.
(Translated by Dr Shehzad Saleem)