Islamic Fiqh > Penalties (hudud) > Punishments in Islam: principles and framework
What hudud are in fiqh: canonical categories fixed by the texts, applied only by the judicial authority under strict conditions, with the rule of doubt suspending the penalty.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
In fiqh, the fixed punishments (hudud, singular hadd) form categories established by the texts: offenses against family fall under the hadd of zina, against property under the hadd of theft, against public security under the hadd of hiraba, against honor under the hadd of qadhf, and intoxicating drink has its own hadd. Everything else falls under ta'zir, the discretionary sanction, and attacks on life are treated by qisas and diya. The encyclopedia examines each category by first showing its foundation: the Quran, the Sunna and the consensus (ijma) of the scholars.
Each hadd rests on this triple foundation. Zina is forbidden by the Quran (« do not approach fornication; it is an outrage and an evil path », al-Isra 32), by the Sunna and by consensus; that is why, the encyclopedia notes, its hadd is the harshest of the hudud, since it attacks honor and lineage. The same applies to theft: consensus covers both its prohibition and its penalty once its conditions are met.
I asked the Messenger of Allah which sin is greatest. He said: to set up an equal to Allah though He created you. I said: then what? He said: to kill your child for fear that he shares your food. I said: then what? He said: to commit adultery with the wife of your neighbor.al-Bukhari 4761 ; Muslim 86
The false accusation of misconduct (qadhf) is forbidden by an-Nur 4, which fixes the penalty of 80 lashes, and it ranks among the « seven destructive sins » (al-Bukhari 2767 ; Muslim 89). Theft is highlighted in the hadith where Allah curses the thief who steals an egg or a rope (al-Bukhari 6401 ; Muslim 1687). As for hiraba, the encyclopedia classifies it among the major sins and among the hudud by agreement of the scholars: Allah calls its perpetrators « those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger » and announces a four-degree penalty (al-Ma'ida 33). These categories are not extrapolations: every school receives them directly from the texts.
No one is flogged beyond ten lashes except for a hadd among the hudud of Allah.al-Bukhari 6456
This hadith establishes that a punishment of ten lashes or fewer is permitted outside the hudud: this is ta'zir, prescribed for every act of disobedience without a hadd and without expiation. Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim put it as follows: the scholars agree that ta'zir is prescribed for any disobedience carrying neither hadd nor kaffara, whether neglecting a duty or committing a forbidden act. Its scale varies: reprimand, imprisonment, lashes. The majority of the schools (Hanafis, Malikis, Hanbalis) make it a duty of the judge, while the Shafi'is treat it as discretionary when only the right of Allah is at stake.
Applying these punishments belongs to the imam or his delegate: the four schools agree that neither the victim nor the family executes the ta'zir themselves, since the person concerned may overstep the measure. Three exceptions are unanimously admitted: the husband may discipline his wife, the father his child, the teacher his pupil within the accepted pedagogical bounds.
Alongside punishments, compensation (diya) protects life: its wisdom is, the encyclopedia writes, to preserve the human being from destruction and blood from being shed. It is obligatory by the Quran (an-Nisa 92) and by the letter the Prophet wrote to Amr ibn Hazm for Yemen: one hundred camels for a life, with detailed amounts for wounds and limbs (al-Muwatta 1547 ; an-Nasa'i 4857).
This chapter applies within a judicial framework held by public authority: investigation, proof, defense. The following pages present, category by category, the conditions set by the schools and their points of divergence.