Second : there is a question that comes forward, it is : to carry on the punishment on the thief how much the worth of the stolen thing must be ?
The reply : as Imam Nawawi (Allah bless his soul ) mentioned in his explanation of Sahih Muslim saying :
The judge Ayath said all the muslims has one opinion about cutting off the hand of the thief even if they vary and argue the details.
His speech (from 'A'isha (Allah bless her soul ) she said : the Prophet (peace be upon him) cut off the hand of thief for stealing something that worth a quarter of a dinar or more). In a narration (the Prophet (peace be upon him) said : the hand of the thief should be cut off only for a quarter of a dinar and upwards) and in a narration : (the hand : the hand of the thief should be cut off only for a quarter of a dinar and upwards ) and in narration (The hand of a thief was not cut off during the lifetime of the Prophet except for stealing something it is price equal to a shield in value). And in a narration Ibn Umar (Allah bless his soul ) said : (The Prophet cut off the hand of a thief for stealing a shield that was worth three Dirhams). And in a narration by Abu Hurayra said (Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "Allah curses a man who steals an egg and gets his hand cut off, or steals a rope and gets his hands cut off."). All the Muslim scholars agreed on cutting off the hand of the thief as mentioned before, but they differed and disagree on the quorum and the quantity. The Al-Thahir followers said : the quorum is not condition and the cut off is for lots and little. And from this said Daughter of Shafihi from our followers, and the judge Ayath narrated it from Al Hassan Al Basri and Khawarj and Al Thahir followers and they depend on Allah the Almighty (the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands) and they did not specify the verse. And the community of Islam scholars said : it should not be cut off only if the quorum is proper considering those true Prophet (peace be upon him) speeches.
Then they differ concerning the worth of the quorum issue. Shafifhi said the quorum is a quarter of golden dinar or what wroth a quarter of dinar, if it is price was three dirhams less or more, and can’t be cut for less than this, and numerous or many said like this, and it is the narration by A’isha , Omar bin Abdulaziz and Awzahi , Laith , Abi thawr and Is-haq and others , and also narrated by Dawod, and Malik, Ahmad and Ishaq said in a narration: to be cut off for quarter of dinar or three dirhams or the price one of them, and not to be cut off other than this, and Silaiman bin Yassar, Ibn Shwbrwma, Ibn Layla and Al Hassan in a narration from him: it must not be cut only for five dirhams, this narrated from Omar Bin Katab ,and Abu Hnaifa and is followers said : not to be cut off only for ten dirhams or what it is price is equal to this, and the judge narrated from some Prophet's (peace be upon him) companions that the quorum if four dirhams, and from Othman Al Bati it is one dirham, and from Al Hasan it is two dirhams, and from Al Nkh’y it is fourty dirhams or four dinars, the true one is what Al Shafihi and those who agreed with him said ; cause the Prophet (peace be upon him) clarified the quorum statement in those Hadiths by his own speech that it is a quarter of dinar , and the rest estimations are rejected and have no basis in addition those contradict the frankness of those hadiths. Concerning the narration that the Prophet (peace be upon him) cut off the hand of a thief for stealing a shield that was worth three dirhams). As it is possible that the amount is a quarter of dinar and upwards, The case with this is specification has no generality, it is not allowable to leave the plainness of his speech stating the amount of quorum to this potential hadith, but it must be taken according to agreement on the expression, and like in another hadith (never amputate the hand of thief for stealing less than price of shield) possibly it was a quarter of dinar, and this interpretation must coincide with the clear valuation the Prophet (peace be upon him) stated. And what some of Hanifa and others depend on is that from a narration came : (cut off for stealing a shield priced ten dirhams) and in another narration (five) and it is a weak narration that can’t be taken when comes separately and howe come when it contradicts the clear true hadiths valuing it as a quarter of dinar and it is possible to agree on considering its value as ten dirhams but not a condition on cutting off the hand of the thief, and there is no indication in Prophet’s (peace be upon him) speech stating the quorum depending on it.
And concerning the narration "Allah curses a man who steals an egg or steals a rope and gets his hands cut off.") a group said what is meant by this is iron egg (helmet) and the rope is ship’s rope, and both worth more than a quarter or dinar, and the researchers denied this and stated it as a weak hadith and said : “iron egg and ship’s rope have a clear apparent price. And this is not the context of using them, but fluency of speech denies it, and usually one is not guilty of taking a risk to have in his hand something valuable, but one is guilty to be at risk for having something not valuable and it is subject of decreasing and increasing, and the purpose is alarming about the great loss, and it is his hand for just a low amount of money which is a quarter of dinar, the egg and rope are shared with the lowness, or the class of egg and rope are meant, or if he had stolen an egg his hand is not cut and this made him to steal more great things and then his hand cut off, and the egg is the cause of the cut off, or the purpose is that he steals egg and rope and some rulers cut off by policy not by Sharia law permition, and said : the Prophet (peace be upon him) said this after the theft aya revelation by Allah as a whole and not specifying the quorum, and he said it in clear statement and Allah knows the best.
We note : that the cutting off the hand in only carried out for something with a high price (great value).
Third : Doctor Ali Jumha put a great answer in his book (Truths of Islam for facing the facile of the doubters) (fourth edition page 546) saying : and while cutting off the hand disgraces the thief and stigmatize him with a mark and reveals to people what he was. then Islam is caring about the thief guilty of theft, is not cutting off the hand for just doubts and that he has stolen a very trivial valueless thing, or when the stolen thing is not in protection but the thief in such cases will be rebuked by beating or put in prison, and his hand not to be cut off. And those standard that sharia (Islamic low) put for applying the punishment of theft :
First : the stolen thing must be something valuable in other words to have a economical importance in people’s life. From Aisha (Allah bless her soul) narrated from Prophet (peace be upon him) that he said : “ the hand should be cut off , ie the thief’s hand, for a quarter of a dinar and upwards.”
Second : the stolen thing be kept or protected in a place.
Third : what is stolen to be eaten by mouth from dates there is no cut off and no rebuking.
Fourth : at times of starving there is no cut off and thus Omar (Allah bless his soul) cancelled the cut off in the year of Ramada when starvation pervaded and spread through.
Fifth : if a slave has stolen something it will be viewed if his lord feeds him or not? If not, his lord will be fined double times the price of the stolen thing as our master Omar Bi Khatab (Allah bless his soul) did with the servants of Ibn hatab Bin Abi Bltha when they stole a man’s camel from a fancy he ordered cut off but when he revealed that their lord is not feeding them he keep off them and fined their lord with double times the price of the camel.
And the rule is the punishments will be cancelled by dubts.
And in this way the Islamic punishment should be understood under its integral regulation that takes the reasons to avoid it before taking the reasons to apply the punishments. The punishment prevents the crime to be done, and for this we see that in the course of Islam history and in all the wide area of Islam countries the theft punishment was not applied only in a very limited cases for a very limited number not exceeding tens in all of millions of people wherein the Muslims have strong believe in that the theft is one of the evil crimes that threatens the social security and society itself that is why deserves this physical punishment which is just like execution punishment , the punishment will be great as greatness of the crime and sin. Some contemporaries start with another cognitive sample by giving priority to the person’s body in itself and they do not care about his deeds and crimes. And they can’t see all the safe and perfect guidance, there is no power and no strength save in Allah.
A slander : The punishment of the Theft
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