Decapitation in Islam

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Decapitation was a standard method of capital punishment in pre-modern Islamic law. By the end of the 20th century, its use had been abandoned in most countries. Decapitation is still a legal method of execution in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. [1] It is also a legal method for execution in Zamfara State, Nigeria under Sharia. [2] In Iran, beheading was last used in 2001 according to Amnesty International, but it is no longer in use. [3] In recent decades, extremist Salafi jihadist groups have used beheading as a method of killing captives and terror tactic.

Contents

Background and context

The use of decapitation for punishment continued well into the 20th century in both Islamic and non-Islamic nations. [4] [5] When done properly, it was once[ specify ] considered a humane and honorable method of execution.

Decapitation in Islamic scripture

There is a debate as to whether the Quran discusses decapitation. [6] Two surahs could potentially be used to provide a justification for decapitation in the context of war: [6]

When the Lord inspired the angels (saying) I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite the necks and smite of them each finger. (8:12) [7]

Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom 'til the war lay down its burdens. (47:4) [8]

Among classical commentators, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi interprets the last sentence of 8:12 to mean striking at the enemies in any way possible, from their head to the tips of their extremities. [9] Al-Qurtubi reads the reference to striking at the necks as conveying the gravity and severity of the fighting. [10] For al-Qurtubi, al-Tabari, and Ibn Kathir, the expression indicates the brevity of the act, as it is confined to battle and is not a continuous command. [10]

Some commentators have suggested that terrorists use alternative interpretations of these surahs to justify decapitation captives, however there is agreement among scholars that they have a different meaning. [6] Furthermore, according to Rachel Saloom, surah 47:4 goes on to recommend generosity or ransom when waging war, and it refers to a period when Muslims were persecuted and had to fight for their survival. [6]

Decapitation in Islamic law

Decapitation was the normal method of executing the death penalty under classical Islamic law. [11] [12] It was also, together with hanging, one of the ordinary methods of execution in the Ottoman Empire. [13]

Currently, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which uses decapitation within its Islamic legal system. [14] The majority of executions carried out by the Wahhabi government of Saudi Arabia are public beheadings, [15] [16] which usually cause mass gatherings but are not allowed to be photographed or filmed. [17]

According to Amnesty, decapitation have been carried out by state authorities in Iran as recently as 2001, [14] [18] [19] but as of 2014 is no longer in use. [18] It is a legal form of execution in Yemen, [1] but the punishment has been suspended. It is also a legal form of execution under Sharia in Zamfara State, Nigeria. [2]

Historical occurrences

Modern use by non-state actors

Extremist Salafi jihadist groups such as ISIS and Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad have used beheading as a method of killing captives. Since 2002, ISIS have circulated beheading videos as a form of terror and propaganda. [12] [25] Their actions have been condemned by militant and other terrorist groups, as well as by mainstream Islamic scholars and organizations, who have contrasted Saudi government executions, which conform to standards that minimize pain, with the non-state actors who have "chosen a slow, torturous sawing method to terrorize the Western audience". [26]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Sharia is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God's immutable divine law and this is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its interpretations by Islamic scholars. Fiqh, practical application side of sharia in a sense, was elaborated over the centuries by legal opinions issued by qualified jurists and sharia has never been the sole valid legal system in Islam historically; it has always been used alongside customary law from the beginning, and applied in courts by ruler-appointed judges, integrated with various economic, criminal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decapitation</span> Total separation of the head from the body

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Zināʾ (زِنَاء) or zinā is an Islamic legal term referring to unlawful sexual intercourse. According to traditional jurisprudence, zina can include adultery, fornication, prostitution, rape, sodomy, incest, and bestiality. Zina must be proved by testimony of four Muslim eyewitnesses to the actual act of penetration, confession repeated four times and not retracted later. The offenders must have acted of their own free will. Rapists could be prosecuted under different legal categories which used normal evidentiary rules. Making an accusation of zina without presenting the required eyewitnesses is called qadhf (القذف), which is itself a hudud offense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Jathiya</span> 45th chapter of the Quran

The Kneeling, is the 45th chapter (surah) of the Qur'an with 37 verses (ayat). It is a Meccan chapter, believed revealed according to the Islamic tradition during the Meccan phase of Muhammad's prophethood. This is one of the seven chapters in the Qur'an that start with the Muqattaʿat Hāʼ Mīm. It contains discussions of "signs of God" for humankind to reflect on, and describes punishments for those who deny God despite the signs. It also contains the only Quranic verse mentioning sharia, a term which Muslims later use to refer to the Islamic law.

Hudud is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". In the religion of Islam, it refers to punishments that under Islamic law (sharīʿah) are mandated and fixed by God as per Islam. These punishments were applied in pre-modern Islam, and their use in some modern states has been a source of controversy.

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Rajm in Islam refers to the Hudud punishment wherein an organized group throws stones at a convicted individual until that person dies. Under some versions of Islamic law (Sharia), it is the prescribed punishment in cases of adultery committed by a married person which requires either a confession from either the adulterer or adulteress, or producing four witnesses of sexual penetration.

Qisas or Qiṣāṣ is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind", "eye for an eye", or retributive justice.

Diya 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. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and ransom, and it is spelled sometimes as diyah or diyeh.

In Islamic law, Ḥirābah is a legal category that comprises highway robbery, rape, and terrorism. Ḥirābah means piracy or unlawful warfare. It comes from the triliteral root ḥrb, which means “to become angry and enraged”. The noun ḥarb means 'war' or 'wars'.

Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia is a legal punishment, with most executions in the country being carried out by decapitation (beheading) – Saudi Arabia being the only country in the world to still use the method. In 2022, recorded executions in Saudi Arabia reached 196, the highest number recorded in the country for any year over the last three decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stoning</span> Method of capital punishment

Stoning, or lapidation, is a method of capital punishment where a group throws stones at a person until the subject dies from blunt trauma. It has been attested as a form of punishment for grave misdeeds since ancient times.

The use of politically and religiously-motivated violence dates back to the early history of Islam. Islam has its origins in the behavior, sayings, and rulings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his companions, and the first caliphs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries CE. Mainstream Islamic law stipulates detailed regulations for the use of violence, including corporal and capital punishment, as well as regulations on how, when, and whom to wage war against.

Capital punishment is a legal criminal penalty in Somalia, a nation in East Africa. Legally sanctioned executions of the death penalty in Somalia are carried out by shooting, in accordance with the 1962 Somali Penal Code and the Military Penal Code. Sharia and Islamic tribunals are recognised in Somalia in parallel with the civil law: these would have the authority to order execution by other means, such as beheading and stoning. Since at least the start of the 21st century, all executions by such methods have been applied ad-hoc, without official sanction, by non-state insurgent militias, in the context of an unstable government, and the ongoing civil war in the country. A number of these extrajudicial executions have violated sharia legal principles and appear to have a conflict-related tactical aim of inciting fear amongst civilians. Both officially sanctioned and extrajudicial executions by firing squad often occur in public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal system of Saudi Arabia</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Islam</span> Overview of the death penalty in Islam

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment for homosexuality</span> Death penalty for same-sex sexual activity

Capital punishment as a criminal punishment for homosexuality has been implemented by a number of countries in their history. It is a legal punishment in several countries and regions, all of which have sharia–based criminal laws, except for Uganda.

Capital punishment for offenses is allowed by law in some countries. Such offenses include adultery, apostasy, blasphemy, corruption, drug trafficking, espionage, fraud, homosexuality and sodomy, perjury, prostitution, sorcery and witchcraft, theft, and treason.

References

  1. 1 2 "Republican Decree – By Law No. [13] For 1994 Concerning the Criminal Procedures" (PDF). 12 October 1994. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Sharia Criminal Procedure Code Law 2005, No. 6 of 2005" (PDF). 23 November 2005. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  3. ↑ "Beheading was last used as a method of execution in 2001....beheading is no longer in use." Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Death Penalty Worldwide: Iran Archived 27 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Cliff Roberson, Dilip K. Das (2008). An Introduction to Comparative Legal Models of Criminal Justice. CRC Press. p. 156. ISBN   9781420065930.
  5. ↑ Nina Rastogi (20 February 2009). "Decapitation and the Muslim World". Slate. Archived from the original on 27 December 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Rachel Saloom (2005), "Is Beheading Permissible under Islamic Law – Comparing Terrorist Jihad and the Saudi Arabian Death Penalty", UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, vol. 10, pp. 221–49.
  7. ↑ "Surah Al-Anfal - 1-75". Quran.com. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  8. ↑ "Surah Muhammad - 1-38". Quran.com. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  9. ↑ Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Dagli, Caner K.; Dakake, Maria Massi; Lumbard, Joseph E.B.; Rustom, Mohammed (2015). The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. HarperCollins (Kindle edition). p. Commentary to 8:12, Loc. 23676–23678.
  10. 1 2 Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Dagli, Caner K.; Dakake, Maria Massi; Lumbard, Joseph E.B.; Rustom, Mohammed (2015). The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. HarperCollins (Kindle edition). p. Commentary to 47:4, Loc. 59632–59635.
  11. ↑ Rudolph Peters (2006). Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century . Cambridge University Press. p.  36.
  12. 1 2 Sara Hussein and Rita Daou (3 September 2014). "Jihadists beheadings sow fear, prompt Muslim revulsion". Yahoo! News. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  13. ↑ Rudolph Peters (2006). Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century . Cambridge University Press. p.  101.
  14. 1 2 Hood, Roger; Hoyle, Carolyn (2015). The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective. Oxford University Press. p. 178. ISBN   978-0-19-870173-6.
  15. ↑ Janine di Giovanni, "When It Comes to Beheadings, ISIS has Nothing Over Saudi Arabia" Archived 16 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine , Newsweek , 14 October 2014.
  16. ↑ Russell Goldman, "Saudi Arabia's Beheading of a Nanny Followed Strict Procedures" Archived 18 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine , ABC News, 11 January 2013.
  17. ↑ Justine Drennen (20 January 2015). "Saudi Arabia's Beheadings Are Public, but It Doesn't Want Them Publicized". Foreign Policy Magazine . Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  18. 1 2 "Death Penalty Database: Iran" Archived 7 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine , deathpenaltyworldwide.org, Cornell Law School. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  19. ↑ "Iran / death penalty A state terror policy" (PDF). International Federation for Human Rights. 16 March 2010. p. 38. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  20. ↑ Watt, W. Montgomery (2012). "Ḳurayẓa". In P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4535.
  21. ↑ Newman, Sharan (2007). The Real History Behind the Templars. Penguin. p. 133. ISBN   978-0425215333.
  22. ↑ Bunson, Matthew. "How the 800 Martyrs of Otranto Saved Rome". Catholic Answers. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  23. ↑ Nancy Bisaha (2004). Creating East And West: Renaissance Humanists And the Ottoman Turks. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 158.
  24. ↑ Byron Farwell, Prisoners of the Mahdi (New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989), pp. 156-7.
  25. ↑ James Watson, Anne Hill (2015). Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 325. ISBN   9781628921489.
  26. ↑ Timothy R. Furnish (2005). "Beheading in the Name of Islam". Middle East Quarterly. 12 (2): 51–57.
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