A Critical Look at the Four Fiqhi Views in Punishing Sinners

The rule of "التعزیر لکل عمل محرم." [1] is one of the most widely used rules of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). According to the text of this jurisprudential rule, the religious judge is authorized to execute ta’zir (discretionary punishment) for any wrong action or any wrongdoer. However, the interpretation of Imamiyyah foqaha (Shia jurists) from this rule is not the same. Some of these foqaha have considered any forbidden act to be punishable, while some others have considered only the cardinal or major sins to be punishable. There exists also another group of foqaha who have made the punishment of ta'zir conditional on the sinner’s or wrongdoer’s doing or not doing the forbidden act through prohibition, reprimand, and preaching. In addition to these three groups of foqaha, some believe that ta’zir for committing a sin or doing a wrong is permissible only when the sinner or wrongdoer violates public order and disrupts the order of affairs in a community. In this study, while examining the various arguments of the above four approaches, it is concluded that in addition to the possibility of finding the link between the mentioned rule from Sunni caliphate fiqh and the rule from Imami school fiqh, despite the capacities assisting the government in recognizing the sins and wrong actions which violates public order, there is basically no need to adhere such a rule of thumb, and relying on the exegesis from such a rule will not be practically of any benefit.