We continue today answering the questions raised by our non-Muslim reader who was motivated by the events of 9/11 to study Islamic law. His studies made him raise several points that he feels should be amended in Islamic law, and he wonders whether this could be achieved.
Q. I have noticed that all Shariah penalties are of the primitive type, such as a number of lashes, cutting of hands or feet, death, etc. There is no punishment by imprisonment. Is it possible to introduce the more civilized type of punishment, such as prison sentences, or community service? Looking back, it may be that the reason for this was the fact that prisons and places of detention were not built at the time.
David J.B.
A. The question here is not whether a punishment is primitive or advanced. It is one of what is suitable to prevent the crime. As I explained in my first answer, Islamic punishments are decided by God, who was always aware what progress man would make in future. Had He so willed,
He would have decreed one penalty for a certain period of time and another for the time when we will have had prisons. A certain crime, armed highway robbery, is given four alternative punishments. There was nothing to prevent prescribing more than one punishment for other offenses and giving the judge or the ruler the choice to apply any of them, or setting a time frame for the application of each.
Besides, it is not true to say that at the dawn of Islam there were no prisons to detain offenders. Some sort of detention was practiced in many communities. Had God wished, He would have specified this punishment. On the other hand, we tend to think of imprisonment as a civilized way of punishing offenders, only because this mode of punishment is familiar to us. In many cases it is not a suitable punishment.
Islam views punishment as a deterrent. Hence, it may specify severe punishments only to deter people from committing crime. Its policy has proven very successful, but Islamic law can only be applied in a Muslim society where the community has decided to abide by Islamic rules.