When qisas is due for a life or a limb, the person entitled to it may not carry it out independently without the ruler’s permission. If it concerns a limb, the ruler does not permit him to carry it out himself; rather, someone else must undertake it. The fee of the person who carries it out is payable from the property of the person against whom retaliation is exacted. Abu Bakr related this.

If the retaliation concerns a life, the ruler may permit him to carry it out himself, provided that he remains composed while doing so. Otherwise, the ruler carries it out with the sharpest and most effective sword. If the person entitled to qisas carries it out independently—whether for a life or a limb—and does not exceed what is due, the ruler disciplines him for usurping the authority to carry it out, although he has obtained his right through qisas; therefore, he incurs no further liability.

Taʿzīr is disciplinary punishment for offenses for which no fixed ḥadd punishment has been prescribed. Its ruling varies according to the circumstances of the offense and those of the offender. In one respect, it resembles the fixed punishments: it is disciplinary correction intended to reform and deter, and it varies according to the seriousness of the offense. In two respects, however, it differs from the fixed punishments.

First, disciplining a person of standing and propriety is lighter than disciplining people known for vulgarity and foolishness, in accordance with the Prophet’s statement ﷺ: “Overlook the slips of people of standing.” Thus, although people are treated equally with regard to fixed punishments, the taʿzīr of a person of high rank may consist in turning away from him. Someone of lesser standing may be disciplined with stern admonition and the utmost degree of disdain that does not amount to slander or abuse. Those beneath them are then subjected to imprisonment, with the duration determined according to their rank and their offenses. Some are imprisoned for a day, while others are imprisoned for longer, without any fixed maximum duration. Those of an even lower standing may instead be exiled and banished when their offenses lead others to follow them and cause harm through them.

Imam Aḥmad, may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him, said—according to the narration of al-Marwazī concerning the effeminate man: “His punishment is that he be exiled.” According to the narration of Isḥāq, when he was asked about taʿzīr for drinking wine, he said: “No—except in the case of fornication and the effeminate man.”

Exile is generally set at less than a full year, even if only by one day, so that it does not become equivalent to the one-year exile prescribed for fornication.