I’m really glad you brought up this question! These days, the media likes to throw the word Sharia around as if it’s an atomic bomb or something (lol!), when in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
Islam did not come to restrict or deny human nature. On the contrary, Islam was intended to make things easier for us.
, is that most things have been made lawful for us. What has been made unlawful are the things that 'harm us' (and have negative effects such as diseases becoming rampant, families breaking up, etc.) It's up to the person to choose to obey Allah and stay away from what has potential harm or...follow their own desires.
Let's say a person feels that his/her marriage life is miserable and would like to be involved with someone else. There is an Islamic alternative- the person has the RIGHT in Islam to divorce. Keep in mind that this is not a right given in all religions. Even today, people in the Philippines are fighting for the right of divorce. Yet, Islam grants it. Islam allows a person to divorce and remarry.
Also, another Islamic alternative would be polygamy.
IF a person commits an affair, then, they have willingly chosen to forgo Allah's permissible alternatives.
That is something they have chosen to do- a course of action that they decided to pursue.
We'lll talk more about that in second, but first, let's continue with the second critical aspect to Islam.
The second important notion in Islam is that of justice.
Justice is extremely important in Islam. Islam recognizes that a society cannot prevail without justice. Justice therefore must be protected and laws must be set to ensure that justice is served. That is why the Qur’an commands that we are just, even if we have to stand against our own families or ourselves. Not only that, but we know that one of God’s attributes is that He is the Just; He has forbidden injustice upon Himself and He has forbidden it on us.
Now, justice does not come by recognizing only a criminal’s rights. It comes when both the victim and the criminal are given their due rights and when the welfare of the entire society is taken into consideration.
Justice also cannot be carried out by any random person, but should be carried out
only by the people in authority and only once sufficient evidence has been brought forth.
Okay, okay, enough with the intro. What about cutting the hand off a thief?
Most people automatically imagine a very poor, needy, desperate person as a thief. They think "Islam is so cruel. Cutting the hands of a needy person?"
But that's not the case, at all.
Islam wants to help and protect the needy people.
As Muslims, we're commanded to pay zakat, or a percentage of money to the less fortunate, right. Don't we have to pay 2.5 % of our wealth, 5% of our crops that are grown, and 20% of any minerals from the earth? This is not something extra. Instead, it’s considered an obligation that every Muslim must do. Besides that, Muslims are encouraged to give voluntary charity or sadaqah. That’s what individuals are supposed to do.
You know what else…Islamically, the government is supposed to ensure that every single person has the basic necessities, from food, clothing, housing, and medical fees. Islam is completely against the idea that someone in a society could die from starvation because they didn’t have enough money…or that someone could die because they couldn’t afford health care.
This is what is supposed to happen if Shariaa was implemented properly.
As you can see, someone who would steal in such a society really is only stealing out of greed…And that’s not fair. Islam is very big on making sure everyone understands that they have their rights. It’s not fair for someone to steal from someone else’s hard work and effort.
In fact, I want you to imagine a poor person putting away all of their life savings in a tiny little box in their cupboard and locking that cupboard with a key. And then, somebody coming in the middle of the night and stealing that poor person's life savings. Just imagine how that person would feel!
You see, the hadd punishment for stealing has a lot of conditions. One of those conditions is that the 'sariq' took something that had been put away and properly 'hidden'...
that the victim had taken precautions to protect their things, yet the 'criminal' had deliberately chosen to 'break in and steal it'. Read more about it here:
http://islam-qa.com/en/ref/14238/thief
Other conditions that have to/ should be fulfilled before someone can be considered guilty of stealing include (according to Wikipedia and I did hear this on t.v.)
- The theft must not have been the product of hunger, necessity, or duress.
- There must have been criminal intent to take private (not common) property.
- The goods stolen must: be over a minimum value, not haraam, and not owned by the thief's family.
- Goods must have been taken from custody (i.e., not in a public place).
- There must be reliable witnesses/evidence.
There are a few other conditions, too...But anyways, once they have all been fulfilled, then, the punishment is to take place. The purpose of this punishment is to act as a deterrent .It tells people to seriously think about what they are doing.
And one last point, I heard in a funny video was this: if someone steals a huge amount of money and then is given a prison sentence, what happens to him/ her? Don’t we steal have to feed/ house this person while they are incarcerated? Y
ou know who’s paying: all of the tax payers, including the person who was robbed. Does that make sense?
Well, what about the flogging and stoning punishments.
Okay, here's the thing:
Islam as we said, does not deny human nature. It does not condemn ‘sex’ but condemns sex only outside of marriage. (In fact, Islam has promised married couples that their intimate act yields them ‘hasnaat’ or rewards). Because Islam understands human nature, though, Sharia has commanded:
-men and women to lower their gazes (around each other),
- to cover certain parts of their bodies,
-and not to unnecessarily be alone together (those that are non-mahrams to each other).
-Islam has encouraged that people get married young, and that marriages are made easy- that is, grooms and brides should not ask each other for unrealistic things or big dowreis, etc.
- Islam has also allowed for divorce and polygamy
What we have to remember then is that a person who has engaged in pre-marital sex or adultery has
chosen to willingly ignore all of the above commandments and the permissible alternatives.
We also have to remember that there are also conditions for this punishment, too. In order for the punishment for pre-marital sex to be carried out, the Qur'an stipulates that there must have been four reliable and trustworthy witnesses. FOUR witnesses!
So what that basically means is that the person was FLAUNTING their sin....that they were very open about it. That's not acceptable. It's one thing to 'fall into a personal sin". It's another thing to 'invite' others to sin by flaunting it, yourself.
These are not just 'simple sins' either.
Pre-marital sex and adultery threaten they very cornerstone of the society- they threaten the family backbone. They are major causes of illnesses spreading, of families breaking up, of children growing up without their fathers or any clue to who they are....They can also lead to such things as abortion or the killing of innocent babies.
Allah subhanoo wa' Tala sets the boundaries by putting these laws for us. They act as a deterrent and essentially protect our societies.
At the end of the day, as Muslims, we believe that God, our Creator, is the One who decided the punishments for those crimes. We believe that as our Creator, God knows what works best for us and what is better for our societies. The punishments are really meant to scare people from thinking of doing any crimes.
I hope this helps a bit, but sis, please remember that our faith is so much more than two or three punishments :) Islam is about a persons's relationship with the Most Merciful (our Lord), with others (our families, neighbors, towns, Muslims, non-Muslims, etc.), and ourselves.
http://www.1ststepsinislam.com/en/commandments-of-islam.aspx
(One last thing I want to point out is that even the Old Testament mentions stoning as a punishment. Just because the Western countries have "given up the punishments listed in their books, doesn't mean that we should." It says:)
22.22 “If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman and the woman; so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.
Stoning to death punishment for virgin women for adultery.
22.23 If a damsel who is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the city and lie with her,
22.24 then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones, that they die — the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city, and the man,because he hath humbled his neighbor’s wife; so thou shalt put away evil from among you.)
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