RSB12Crime and Punishment: Punishment, Forgiveness and the Death Penalty

Punishment is a penalty given to someone for breaking a law. Muslims believe Allah is just (al-’Adl) and commands justice, so a fair punishment is a form of justice, not revenge.

• Justice is commanded: the Qur’an tells believers to be ‘staunch in justice’ even against themselves or their own family (4:135, Pickthall’s translation). A fair punishment puts right the balance that the crime upset.
• Surah 2:178 sets out qisas (equal retaliation) for murder, but adds that if the victim’s family forgives, the offender should pay compensation ‘in kindness’, calling this ‘an alleviation and a mercy from your Lord’ (Pickthall’s translation).
• Surah 5:44–46 repeats the law given before Islam: ‘The life for the life, and the eye for the eye…’, then adds, ‘whoso forgoeth it (in the way of charity) it shall be expiation for him’ (5:45, Pickthall’s translation). Punishment is allowed, but forgiving is praised.
• Why punishment is needed in society: it protects people and property, shows that wrongdoing matters, gives victims justice, and keeps order so people can live and worship in peace.
• This life and the next: many Muslims believe a just punishment on earth can also cleanse the offender of the sin, if they repent, so they are not punished for it again on the Day of Judgement.
• Divergent attitudes: some Muslims stress strict, fixed penalties as Allah’s law; others stress mercy, the strict conditions for any penalty and the chance to repent. Most British Muslims accept UK law and its punishments, such as prison and fines.

Punishment

A penalty given to someone for a crime or wrongdoing.

Justice

Fairness: each person getting what is right, with wrongs put right.

Qisas

In Islamic law, equal retaliation for murder or injury, which the victim or their family may give up.

Shari’ah (Islamic law) groups punishments into three categories. Students need to know them accurately and the range of Muslim views on using them today.

• Hudud (singular hadd): fixed penalties for a small number of serious crimes named in the Qur’an or the Sunnah, such as theft (5:38). The proof required is very strict, and a well-known legal principle says that doubt should stop a hadd penalty.
• Qisas: equal retaliation for murder or injury (5:45). The victim or their family may choose mercy instead and accept diya (compensation).
• Ta’zir: every other offence. A judge decides the penalty to fit the person and the crime, which could be a warning, a fine, prison or community work.
• Repentance: the Qur’an follows the hadd penalty for theft with a promise that Allah will relent towards whoever repents and makes amends (5:39).
• Range of views today: some Muslims believe hudud should be applied as Allah’s law wherever there is an Islamic state; many argue they need a fully just society, with no poverty and perfect proof, so they should rarely or never be used now; many British Muslims see the principles (justice, mercy, repentance) as what matters.
• In Britain, Muslims follow UK law. Shari’ah councils deal only with religious matters such as marriage advice; they have no power to punish anyone.

The three categories, from fixed to flexible

Shari’ah

Islamic law, based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah, guiding every part of life.

Hadd (hudud)

A fixed punishment set in the Qur’an or Sunnah for one of a small number of serious crimes.

Ta’zir

A punishment decided by a judge for offences without a fixed penalty.

Diya

Compensation (‘blood money’) paid to a victim or their family instead of retaliation.

The specification names four aims: protection, retribution, deterrence and reformation. Muslims hold different views about each.

• Surah 4:26–32 (named in the specification): Allah wants to guide people and ‘turn to you in mercy’ (4:26); he ‘would make the burden light for you, for man was created weak’ (4:28); it forbids killing one another (4:29) and promises that if people avoid the great sins, their lesser wrongs will be wiped out (4:31). Muslims read this as justice set alongside mercy and the chance to reform.
• Deterrence in Muslim teaching: punishment that people know about warns others off. Many Muslims argue that a firm, known penalty protects the whole community, as 2:179 says retaliation brings ‘life’ (others are saved because killers are deterred).
• Reformation in practice: Muslim prison chaplains in Britain help prisoners pray, study the Qur’an and plan a new start. Many Muslims see the Prophet Muhammad’s readiness to accept the repentance of former enemies as the model.
• Which aim matters most? Some Muslims put justice (retribution) first, as the right of the victim; others say protection of society is the main purpose; many stress that every punishment should leave room to repent and reform.

Retribution looks back at the crime; the other three look forward.

Protection

An aim of punishment: keeping society safe from the offender.

Retribution

An aim of punishment: making the offender pay for what they have done.

Deterrence

An aim of punishment: putting people off committing crimes.

Reformation

An aim of punishment: helping the offender change their behaviour for good.

Tawbah

Repentance: turning back to Allah, sorry for the wrong and resolved not to repeat it.

Situation ethics is an ethical theory set out by the American theologian Joseph Fletcher in 1966. It says there is one absolute rule: do the most loving thing (agape) in each situation. The specification links it to punishment, torture and the death penalty.

• On punishment: a situationist asks what the most loving outcome is for everyone involved: the victim, the offender and society. That might be a strict sentence in one case and a second chance in another.
• On torture: the specification notes that situation ethics might accept torture if it is for the greater good, for example to stop an attack that would kill many people.
• On the death penalty: a situationist would usually reject it, because killing is rarely the most loving act and mistakes can’t be undone; a few argue it could be the loving choice to protect many people.
• Muslim responses: many Muslims agree that mercy and the intention behind an action matter, and qisas lets each case be judged by the family’s choice to forgive. But most Muslims say some rules are fixed by Allah and can’t be set aside because a human judges the outcome would be better.
• On torture, most Muslims reject the situationist argument: human dignity is given by Allah (‘We have honoured the Children of Adam’, 17:70, Pickthall’s translation), and confessions gained by force are not valid in Islamic law.
• Situation ethics is a Christian-origin theory, but it isn’t a Muslim teaching: use it as an ethical theory and give the Muslim response to it.

Situation ethics

The theory that the right action is the most loving one in each situation (Joseph Fletcher, 1966).

Agape

Selfless, unconditional love for others: the one rule in situation ethics.

Forgiveness means letting go of anger and blame towards someone who has done wrong. Muslims believe Allah is al-Ghafur (the Forgiving) and al-Rahim (the Merciful), so believers should forgive too.

• Surah 64:14 (named in the specification): ‘if ye efface and overlook and forgive, then lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful’ (Pickthall’s translation). Forgiving others reflects Allah’s own nature.
• Pardon is rewarded: ‘whosoever pardoneth and amendeth, his wage is the affair of Allah’ (42:40); Allah loves those who ‘control their wrath and are forgiving toward mankind’ (3:134, Pickthall’s translation).
• Forgive to be forgiven: ‘Let them forgive and show indulgence. Yearn ye not that Allah may forgive you?’ (24:22, Pickthall’s translation).
• No sin too great: Allah ‘forgiveth all sins’ to those who repent (39:53). In the Qur’an, the one sin not forgiven is shirk (associating partners with Allah) if a person dies without repenting of it (4:48).
• The Prophet’s example: when the Prophet Muhammad returned to Makkah in 630 CE, he forgave many of those who had persecuted the early Muslims.
• Forgiveness and punishment: forgiving an offender doesn’t always mean no punishment. A state may still punish to protect society, while victims let go of hatred. In qisas cases, though, the family’s forgiveness can replace the death penalty.

Forgiveness

Letting go of blame and resentment towards someone who has done wrong.

Repentance

Being truly sorry for a wrong and turning away from it.

Shirk

Associating anything with Allah; the one sin not forgiven if a person dies unrepentant.

Restorative justice brings an offender and the victim of their crime together, with a trained facilitator, so the offender understands the harm and makes up for it. It is used by police, prisons and probation services in England and Wales.

• How the community forgives: once an offender has been punished and shows repentance, Muslims believe the community should welcome them back: to the mosque, to prayer in congregation, to work and family life.
• Why this is needed: an offender who is shut out may return to crime; the ummah is meant to be one community; and Muslims believe only Allah judges the heart, so people shouldn’t hold a past sin against someone who has repented.
• Practical help: mosques and Muslim chaplains help ex-offenders find housing and work, and support their families.
• Muslim support for restorative justice: it fits the Qur’an’s picture of a victim’s family forgiving and agreeing compensation (2:178); it lets the victim be heard, which is justice for them; it encourages repentance and repair.
• Why it is important for criminals: they face the real harm they caused, take responsibility, and have a chance to make amends and change; in Britain it has been linked with lower reoffending.
• Muslim doubts: some say it must never replace a just punishment for serious crimes, and that victims mustn’t be pressured into meeting an offender or into forgiving.

Restorative justice is voluntary for both sides.

Restorative justice

Bringing an offender and a victim together so the offender understands the harm and makes amends.

Ummah

The worldwide community of Muslims.

Muslims believe criminals remain human beings created and honoured by Allah, so they must be treated justly, even while being punished.

• Surah 76:1–12 (named in the specification) describes the righteous as those who ‘feed with food the needy wretch, the orphan and the prisoner, for love of Him’ (76:8, Pickthall’s translation), wanting no reward (76:9). Muslims read this as a duty to care for prisoners.
• The Prophet Muhammad’s example: after the Battle of Badr (624 CE), prisoners were fed and housed by Muslim families, and some were freed in return for teaching Muslims to read and write.
• Torture: most Muslim scholars forbid it, and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990), agreed by Muslim-majority states, rules it out. In the UK, torture is banned absolutely by the Human Rights Act 1998 (Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights).
• Human rights: human dignity comes from Allah (‘We have honoured the Children of Adam’, 17:70). Many Muslims support human rights for prisoners; some argue that serious crime rightly removes some rights, such as liberty.
• A fair trial: the Qur’an commands judging ‘justly’ (4:58) and checking reports carefully, ‘verify it, lest ye smite some folk in ignorance’ (49:6, Pickthall’s translation). Islamic law needs reliable witnesses and evidence, and a person is treated as innocent unless guilt is proved.
• Trial by jury: in England and Wales, serious criminal cases are tried in the Crown Court before a jury of 12. Classical Islamic courts used a single judge (qadi) instead; many Muslims accept juries as a fair way of judging, and some prefer trained judges.

Torture

Deliberately causing severe pain or suffering to someone, for example to force information or a confession.

Human rights

Basic rights and freedoms that every person has, such as the right to life and to a fair trial.

Fair trial

A trial in which the accused is presumed innocent, hears the evidence and can defend themselves before an impartial judge or jury.

Capital punishment (the death penalty) is execution by the state as a punishment for a crime. It is not corporal punishment, which causes physical pain. Its purposes are usually given as retribution, deterrence and protection.

• Allowed with right: ‘slay not the life which Allah hath forbidden save with right’ (17:33, Pickthall’s translation). Many Muslims read ‘with right’ as allowing execution after a just trial for murder.
• Surah 5:32: ‘whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind’ (Pickthall’s translation). It is quoted on both sides: life is so precious that murder deserves the most serious penalty, and life is so precious that killing should be avoided.
• A hadith in Sahih Muslim (the specification gives it as 16:4152) says a Muslim’s life may lawfully be taken in only three cases: a life for a life, a married person who commits adultery, and someone who abandons Islam and the community. Muslims disagree about how these classical rulings apply today.
• Qisas and mercy: in murder cases the victim’s family may forgive and accept diya instead (2:178); forgiving ‘shall be expiation’ for them (5:45). So the death penalty is never automatic.
• Divergent Muslim views: many Muslims accept it in principle for murder as Allah’s law; some support it only with perfect proof and when the family refuses mercy; others oppose it today because trials can be unfair, mistakes can’t be undone, and mercy is better.
• Muslim-majority countries differ: some carry out many executions; others, such as Turkey (2004) and Senegal (2004), have abolished the death penalty. Muslims in Britain follow UK law, where it is abolished.

Capital punishment

The death penalty: punishment by execution.

Corporal punishment

Punishing someone by causing them physical pain. Not the same as capital punishment.

The specification names non-religious (including atheist and Humanist) attitudes to capital punishment and the application of situation ethics, with Muslim responses to them.

• UK: the death penalty for murder was suspended in 1965 and abolished permanently in 1969 (Great Britain), and abolished for all crimes in 1998.
• Worldwide in 2025 (Amnesty International): at least 2,707 recorded executions in 17 countries, the most since 1981. This excludes China, which Amnesty believes executes thousands of people in secret.
• Where: Iran at least 2,159; Saudi Arabia at least 356; the USA 47. 113 countries had abolished it for all crimes.

Amnesty International’s figures for 2025, published 18 May 2026

Humanist

Someone who lives by reason, empathy and concern for others, without belief in God.

Abolitionist country

A country that has ended the death penalty in law.