Ta'zir
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Islamic Law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...
, ''tazir'' (''ta'zeer'' or ''ta'zir'', ) lit. scolding; refers to
punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon an individual or group, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a deterrent to a particular action or beh ...
for offenses at the discretion of the judge (
Qadi A qadi (; ) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. History The term '' was in use from ...
) or ruler of the state.Tazir
Oxford Islamic Studies, Oxford University Press
It is one of three major types of punishments or sanctions under Islamic law,
Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
— '' hadd'', ''
qisas ''Qisas'' or ''Qiṣāṣ'' () is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind",Mohamed S. El-Awa (1993), Punishment In Islamic Law, American Trust Publications, "eye for an eye", or retributive justice. ''Qisas'' and ''diyya'' a ...
/
diyya ''Diya'' (; : ''diyāt'', ) in Islamic law, is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage by mistake. It is an alternative punishment to '' qisas'' (equal retaliation) ...
'' and ''ta'zir''. Contrary to the lightness of naming, tazir are discretionary punishments that can range from a harsh warning from the judge to corporal punishment such as flogging, imprisonment and exile not specified in the Qur'an nor the hadiths, or is not punishable under either qisas or hudud. Terminologically, the definition of hudud refers to punishments for actions that exceed divinely determined limits, fixed in the Qur'an or
hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
s) while qisas refers to the equal response that can be used in cases of bodily harm such as killings and organ losses, and diyya refers to variable compensation payments for situations where retaliation is not possible according to sharia rulings in these situations. It is defined by Imam Nawawi, who is a well known and respected Shafi jurist, as a punishment awarded for crimes which have no hadd nor kaffara while Ibn Qudama a Hanbali jurist defines Ta'zir as a “legal punishment for a crime which has no hadd". Which crime falls into which category may vary depending on understanding. According to
Al-Kasani 'Ala' al-Din al-Kasani (), known as Al-Kasani or al-Kashani, was a 12th Century Sunni Muslim Jurist who became an influential figure of the Hanafi Madh'hab, school of Sunni jurisprudence, which has remained the most widely practiced law school i ...
a well known Hanafi scholar, defines ta'zir as a crime which has no specified punishment in shari'a. It is a crime either against the right of God such as abandoning the prayer and fasting, or against the right of an individual such as harming a Muslim with a word or deed.” However, in sharia governments, their testimony against a devout Muslim may not be accepted, they may be humiliated and barred from certain positions because of this tag.


Overview

The classical Islamic legal tradition did not have a separate category for criminal law as does modern law.Wael Hallaq (2009), SHARI’A: THEORY, PRACTICE, TRANSFORMATIONS, Cambridge University Press, , pp. 309, 551-558 The classical Islamic jurisprudence typically divided the subject matter of law into four "quarters", that is rituals, sales, marriage, and injuries. In modern usage, Islamic criminal law has been extracted and collated from that classical Islamic jurisprudence literature into three categories of rules:Mark Cammack (2012), Islamic Law and Crime in Contemporary Courts, BERKELEY J. OF MIDDLE EASTERN & ISLAMIC LAW, Vol. 4, No.1, pp. 1-7 *''Hadd'' (literally "limit") under
Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
, are rules stated in the Quran and the Hadiths, and whose violation is deemed in Islam as a crime against God, and requires a fixed punishment. Hadd crimes include
theft Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shor ...
, illicit sexual relations or rape, making unproven accusations of illicit sex, drinking intoxicants like alcohol,
apostasy Apostasy (; ) is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous re ...
, and highway robbery. *''Qisas'', (literally "retaliation in kind"Mohamed S. El-Awa (1993), ''Punishment In Islamic Law'', American Trust Publications, ) and ''
diya Diya may refer to: * ''Diya (film)'', 2018 Indian Tamil- and Telugu-language film * Diya (Islam), Islamic term for monetary compensation for bodily harm or property damage * Diya (lamp), ghee- or oil-based candle often used in South Asian religious ...
'', () ("blood money"), in Islamic jurisprudence, are the second category of crimes, where Sharia specifies equal retaliation (''qisas'') or monetary compensation (''diya''), as a possible punishment. Included in this category is homicide, for example, which Islamic law treats as a civil dispute between believers. Qisas principle is available against the accused, to the victim or victim's heirs, when a Muslim is murdered, suffers bodily injury or suffers property damage. In the case of murder, qisas means the right of a murder victim's nearest relative or
wali The term ''wali'' is most commonly used by Muslims to refer to a saint, or literally a "friend of God".John Renard, ''Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); John ...
() (legal guardian) to, if the court approves, take the life of the killer or do it in his behalf. *''Tazir'' (literally "to punish", sometimes spelled as taazir, ti'zar, tazar, ta'azar) is the third category, and refers to offense mentioned in the Quran or the Hadiths, but where neither the Quran nor the Hadiths specify a punishment. In Tazir cases, the punishment is at the discretion of the state, the ruler, or a ''qadi'' (''kadi''), or court acting on behalf of the ruler. Tazir punishment is for actions which are considered sinful in Islam, undermine the Muslim community, or threaten public order during Islamic rule, but those that are not punishable as hadd or qisas crimes. The legal restrictions on the exercise of that power are not specified in the Quran or the Hadiths, and vary. The judge enjoys considerable leeway in deciding an appropriate form of punishment, and the punishment does not have to be consistent across the accused persons or over time. The ruler or qadi also has the discretion to forgive tazir offenses.


Scripture

The word tazir is not used in the Quran or the Hadith, in the sense that modern Islamic criminal law uses it. However, in several verses of the Quran, crimes are identified, punishment of the accused indicated, but no specific punishment is described. These instances led early Islamic scholars to interpret the Quran as requiring discretionary punishment of certain offenses, namely Tazir. Example specific verses from the Quran that support taazir are,


Examples of Tazir offenses

Tazir offenses are broadly grouped into two sub-categories in Islamic literature.Criminal Law in Islam
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, Oxford Islamic Studies, Oxford University Press (2013)
The first are those offenses that have the same nature but do not exactly meet the complete requirements of hudud crimes. Examples of such Tazir offenses include thefts among relatives, or attempted but unsuccessful robbery, fornication that does not include penetration, and homosexual contacts such as kissing that does not result in fornication. The second sub-category of Tazir offenses relate to offenses committed by an individual that violate the behavior demanded in the Quran and the Hadiths. Examples of the second sub-category include false testimony, loaning money or any property to another person for interest in addition to principal, any acts that threaten or damage the public order or Muslim community or Islam. The fourteenth century Islamic jurist
Ibn Taymiyyah Ibn Taymiyya (; 22 January 1263 – 26 September 1328)Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din Ahmad, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195125580.001.0001/acref-9780195125580-e-959 was a Sunni Muslim ulama, ...
included any form of disobedience as a Tazir offense, although his views were not accepted widely and listed several examples where there is no legal penalty in Sharia: #the man who kisses a boy or a woman unrelated to him by marriage or a very near kinship; #the man who flirts without fornication; #the man who eats a forbidden thing like blood, or dead animal which suffers natural death, or meat that is slaughtered in an unlawful manner; #the man who steals a thing lying in open or one whose value is unclear; #the man who debases the commodities such as foodstuffs and clothes, or who gives short measure of capacity or weight; #the man who bears false witness or encourages others to bear false witness; #the judge who judges contrary to what Allah has enjoined; #the non-Muslim or Muslim engaged in espionage; #the man who questions
Qadi A qadi (; ) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. History The term '' was in use from ...
's opinion or challenges the views of other Muslims; Numerous other offenses are included in Tazir category.


Tazir punishments

Tazir punishments were common in Sharia courts. Punishments vary with the nature of crime and include a prison term, flogging, a fine, banishment, and seizure of property. The sixteenth-century Egyptian jurist Ibn Nujaym said that taʿzīr could consist of lashing, slapping, rubbing the ears, a stern telling-off, disparagement short of slander, or an angry look from the judge. Execution is allowed in cases such as practices which split the Muslim community, espionage on behalf of an enemy of the Muslim state. All four schools of ''
fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica
''Fiqh'' is of ...
'' (''
Madhhab A ''madhhab'' (, , pl. , ) refers to any school of thought within fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence. The major Sunni Islam, Sunni ''madhhab'' are Hanafi school, Hanafi, Maliki school, Maliki, Shafi'i school, Shafi'i and Hanbali school, Hanbali. They ...
''), namely
Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...
,
Maliki The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...
, Shafii and
Hanbali The Hanbali school or Hanbalism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and tradit ...
, permit the death penalty at the discretion of the state or ''Qadi'', for certain Tazir offenses if it is proven by at two least witnesses or a self confession. ;Contemporary application
Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...
introduced Tazir into its Syariah Penal Code Order effective 2014. Tazir crimes in Brunei now include offenses such as failing to perform Friday prayers by anyone above 15 years old, any Muslim disrespecting the month of Ramadan, and khalwat (dating or any form of close proximity between unrelated members of opposite sex).
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
introduced Tazir into its legal code after the 1979 Revolution, naming the section as ''Qanon-e Tazir''. These Tazir laws allow prosecution of offenses such as illicit kissing, failing to wear proper head dress such as ''hejab'', and making critical statements against judges and members of the Council of Guardians.


See also

* Hudud *
Qisas ''Qisas'' or ''Qiṣāṣ'' () is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind",Mohamed S. El-Awa (1993), Punishment In Islamic Law, American Trust Publications, "eye for an eye", or retributive justice. ''Qisas'' and ''diyya'' a ...
*
Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...


Further reading

* Wael Hallaq (2009), ''An introduction to Islamic law''.
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
. .


References

{{Reflist Arabic words and phrases Islamic criminal jurisprudence Punishments in religion Islamic terminology Islam and capital punishment