Islamic Fiqh > Penalties (hudud) > Conditions for applying punishments
Why were the fixed penalties so rarely applied in fiqh history? Conditions of proof, retractable confession, the legal obstacles that protect the accused.
Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
Before a fixed penalty is carried out, fiqh verifies who may apply it, where, and under what conditions: the penal majority of the offender, his knowledge of the prohibition, the absence of coercion, pregnancy, the value of the confession and its possible retraction. The encyclopedia's sheets unfold these conditions school by school, with their proofs; they explain why the fixed penalties remained so rarely applied in the history of fiqh.
The chapter is published in sections, each complete and directly accessible:
Al-Hawi al-Kabir by al-Mawardi · Shafi'i school
(Chapter) Al-Shafi'i began with the punishment of fornication, for it is the root from which others branch, and its ruling extended over them, and the first of what came down concerning it from the Quran was the word of Allah, the Most High: "And those of your women who commit indecency, call to witness against them four of you; if they testify, confine them in the houses until death takes them, or Allah makes for them a way. And the two of you who commit it, harm them both."