and their honour and their property, as is clearly witnessed in societies that enforce the ḥudūd of Allah: within them security, stability, and a pleasant way of life are realised to a degree none can deny. By contrast, the communities that have suspended Allah’s ḥudūd—claiming they are savage and unbefitting of modern civilisation—have deprived themselves of this divine justice and of the blessing of safety and tranquillity. No matter how many weapons and precision devices they possess, these will avail them nothing until they establish the ḥudūd that Allah ordained for the welfare of His servants. Human societies are not ruled by steel and machinery alone; they are ruled by the law of Allah and His ḥudūd, while the arms and equipment are but tools for carrying out the lawful punishments when used correctly.

How can such deviants reject the ḥudūd of Allah, which are guidance and mercy for all people? How can they brand them barbaric yet refuse to call the criminal’s own deed barbaric when he terrorises the secure, wrongs the innocent, and undermines the peace of society? That is true barbarity, and the stance they adopt is even darker and more brutal. But when minds are inverted and natural instincts corrupted, they take truth for falsehood and falsehood for truth, just as the poet said:

The eye may deny the sunlight when inflamed,
And the mouth may deny the taste of water when diseased.

Accordingly, a ḥadd may not be carried out on an offender unless the conditions for its application are fulfilled, which are as follows:

Condition One: The perpetrator must be an adult of sound mind, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “The pen has been lifted from three: from the minor until he reaches puberty, from the insane until he regains sanity, and from the sleeper …”