Some atheists and heretics say: “If we were to cut off the thief’s hand, half the population would end up with their hands cut off.” We say: If one hand were cut off, thousands would be deterred, and there would be no theft. But the son of Adam, because of his limited vision, looks only at the present and does not look to the future.

Allah, Exalted is He, says regarding highway robbers: “Indeed, the recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption throughout the land is that they be killed, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides” [al-Ma'idah 5:33]. The word “indeed” is a restrictive particle, meaning that their recompense is nothing but this.

While delivering a sermon to the people from the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “I fear that, as time passes, people will say, ‘We do not find stoning in the Book of Allah,’ and thus go astray by abandoning an obligation that Allah revealed” (1). The people did not object to him at all; rather, they affirmed it, because it is one of Allah’s obligations that must be carried out.

If a noble, honourable, upright person from a good family is tempted by his own soul to steal a quarter of a dinar, and this is established against him, then the prescribed punishment must be carried out against him. It is carried out against the noble and the lowly, the rich and the poor, the male and the female, the free person and the slave—there is no distinction—because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, made no distinction. So long as he has stolen, this is his recompense. Indeed, if someone were to say: “Were it not that Allah had prescribed a hadd punishment, we would say that this noble man’s hand and foot should be cut off, because he is noble; for his defilement through theft is graver than”