Quran and the Principle of Legality of Crimes and Punishments

Based on the Principle of Legality of Crimes and Punishments that is one of the most important principles in criminal law, there can be no crime and no punishment without a pre-existing penal law. This principle has been recognized before positive law with more emphasis and a wider range based on various jurisprudential evidences in shari’ah. According to the jurisprudential principles especially Quranic evidences, in juristic judgments (shari’ah derivative principles), exception in intellectual judgments God, because of his compassion to His servants, ought to confirm these kind of judgments by sending his prophets. From shari’ah perspective, the duties should be received by the legally competent person (mokallaf) and it not enough to be communicated only by divine legislator; because sending the prophets is not enough in itself, but it is a way to bring the messages to the servants and to give ultimatum to them. The principle of legality has some important consequences such as “nonretroactivity of criminal law”, “strict interpretation of criminal law” and “acceptance of the ignorance of the law claim”. Therefore, the Quranic and legal principles of legality of crimes and punishments, and its consequences has been discussed in the present article.