and the like. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said:

“Taʿzīr may also touch a person’s honor—for instance, by calling out, ‘You tyrant! You aggressor!’—or by making him leave his seat in a gathering.

Those who allow more than ten lashes in taʿzīr reply to the Prophet’s statement, ‘No one is to be flogged more than ten lashes except in one of Allah’s limits’ (agreed upon), by explaining that the ‘limit’ (ḥadd) here refers to a sinful act itself, not to the fixed legal penalties. Allah’s limits are His prohibitions, so the discretionary punishment is set in view of the public interest and in proportion to the offense.

Taʿzīr must not involve cutting off a limb, wounding the offender, or shaving his beard, for that would be mutilation and disfigurement. Nor may it be carried out through something forbidden, such as forcing him to drink wine.

Anyone known for habitually harming people or their property is to be imprisoned until he repents or dies.

Imām Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) said: ‘His imprisonment is obligatory; more than one jurist has affirmed this, and there should be no disagreement about it, for it is part of sincere counsel to the Muslims and a means of shielding them from harm.’

He also said: ‘Administering authority through sound policy is an act of prudence; no ruler can dispense with it so long as it does not contravene the Law. Whenever the signs of justice appear and its path becomes clear by any means, there stands the Law of Allah. Therefore one must not say that just policy conflicts with what the Law itself has declared.’