Islamic Fiqh > Penalties (hudud) > Sariqa: theft in fiqh
The canonical qualification of theft and its strict conditions that make the fixed penalty rare: what falls under the hadd, what falls under ta'zir, and the schools' views.
Updated on 24 September 2026 at 12:48 AM
Theft (sariqa) is one of the offences whose penalty is fixed by the texts: amputation of the thief's hand, prescribed for property whose value reaches the minimal threshold (nisab) and which is taken secretly from a place of safekeeping. The schools differ over the exact amount of this threshold: a quarter dinar or three dirhams according to the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis, ten dirhams according to the Hanafis. This first part restates the exposition of the legal encyclopedia: the wisdom of amputating the thief's hand, as opposed to the snatcher, the plunderer and the usurper; theft committed by a group; the pillars of theft, namely the stolen property, the victim and the taking in secret; then the conditions attached to the property: legal value, reaching the nisab, safekeeping, intent, knowledge of the prohibition, absence of doubt of entitlement to the property, and absence of kinship with the victim. Positions of the schools, hadiths with their references, and the exact figures of the thresholds.
The chapter is published in sections, each complete and directly accessible:
Bada'i al-Sana'i by al-Kasani · Hanafi school
Abu Yusuf said: both (hands) are cut. (As for) the non-obligation of amputation upon the one who enters (to take it), according to the principle of Abu Hanifa, may Allah have mercy on him: it is because there was no removal from the place of safekeeping (hirz); he proves it in that, had he stretched out his hand and passed it to an accomplice, there would have been no amputation: all the more so in the absence of removal. And the obligation upon him follows the principle of Abu Yusuf, may Allah have mercy on him, for what we mentioned in the preceding question.
Al-Mughni by Ibn Qudama · Hanbali school
Chapter: amputation for theft. Its origin is the Book, the Sunna and consensus. As for the Book: the word of Allah, the Most High: "And the thief, male and female: cut off their hands, both of them". As for the Sunna: Aisha reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The hand is cut for a quarter of a dinar and upward". And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Those before you perished because, when a noble stole among them, they left him, and when a weak one stole, they applied the punishment upon him".