Chapter: The Highway Robber
A highway robber is a Muslim who is legally accountable and possesses armed force; the term does not apply to the petty snatchers who lie in wait for the tail of a caravan and rely on flight.

Anyone who, by his own strength, can overpower a small party is deemed a highway robber with respect to that party, though not with respect to a large caravan. Where help can readily arrive, the assailants are not regarded as highway robbers; the absence of help may be due either to distance or to weakness. Should they nonetheless prevail under such circumstances—even inside a town—they are still counted as highway robbers.

If the ruler learns of people who intimidate travellers yet have taken neither life nor property, he disciplines them with imprisonment and similar discretionary measures.

When the robber seizes property amounting to the threshold that incurs the ḥadd for theft, his right hand and left foot are cut off. If he reoffends, his left hand and right foot are then severed. If he kills, he is certainly put to death, and if—