Shariah Is Not for Punishments only
By Khalid A.
London UK
The current trend in Pakistan is to present Shariah in a way that Allah’s only purpose for the Divine message is to punish mankind. I would like to narrate the following well-known incident that took place in the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
One day, a young man (Moa’z) addressed the Holy Prophet (PBUH) thus: “I have committed adultery and I request that I should be awarded punishment accordingly”. The Prophet ignored him as if he had not heard the young man but he kept on repeating his request. After several such meetings, the Prophet asked Moa’z whether he knew the definition of adultery, to which he replied correctly. Still, the Prophet delayed his decision. He asked Moa’z’s acquaintances whether he was of sound mind or fantasizing. At last, the Prophet ordered the death sentence. It was carried out because Moa’z was insisting that he should be punished in his earthly life rather than in the hereafter.
It so happened that during the last moments of his life, Moa’z screamed to be spared and to be taken to the Prophet for forgiveness. It was quite a natural instinctive action of a dying human being, but it came too late. When the Prophet learnt about it, he expressed sorrow and told the Sahaba that they should have aborted the death sentence to enable the Prophet to intercede with Allah for forgiveness of Moa’z.
One of the Sahaba was heard grumbling that his own dress had been soiled by blood spilt during the last moments of Moa’z. The prophet was displeased and remarked about the intensity and purity of Moa’z ‘s tauba and repentance. He said that his tauba, if distributed amongst the populace, would be sufficient for the deliverance of the entire population of Madina.
The incident shows how reluctant the Holy Prophet was to award the punishment. It also shows how wrong it is to award punishment in anger or with contempt. If at all we have to punish someone, we should do it with sadness but not with contempt as we should be conscious that we are all erring human beings.
It is also reported that the woman linked with Moa’z also reported the matter to the Prophet and asked to be punished too but he advised her to look after her unborn child and breastfeed it for 2-3 years.
It is a pity that today some of us tend to be particularly harsher towards women. Similarly, the poor are more likely to receive harsher punishment. For example, the amputation of the hand is always mentioned for the crime of petty theft but not for the theft of millions of rupees by the high and the mighty, whose criminal greed is more glaring than a starving petty thief.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
