The sound position is that taʿzīr has no fixed upper limit. Nevertheless, when the sin already carries a divinely prescribed ḥadd—such as adultery or theft—the discretionary punishment must not reach the level of that fixed penalty.

Taʿzīr may even extend to execution when the public interest so requires—for example, putting to death a spy, someone who deliberately sows division among the Muslims, or a person who calls people away from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet, and any other case whose harm cannot be removed except by killing.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) said: “This is the most equitable of the opinions, and it is confirmed by the practice of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. The Prophet ordered one hundred lashes for the man whose wife unlawfully let him have relations with her slave-girl; Abū Bakr and ʿUmar each ordered one hundred lashes for a man and a woman found together under a single blanket; and ʿUmar administered a prolonged beating to Ṣabīgh.”

He also said: “If the aim is to forestall corruption and that aim cannot be achieved except through execution, then execution is carried out. Thus, whoever repeatedly commits the same type of corruption and is not deterred by the prescribed penalties but continues in his wrongdoing is like an assailant who can only be repelled by killing; such a person is to be killed.”

There is likewise no minimum limit for taʿzīr, because offenses vary in seriousness and circumstances differ across times and places. For certain crimes the punishment is therefore left to the judge’s ijtihād, guided by need and public benefit, yet always within the bounds of what Allah has commanded and forbidden.

Just as taʿzīr may take the form of lashing, it may also be carried out through imprisonment, slapping, public reprimand, removal from office, and similar measures…

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said: