It is also reported from Umar, Uthmān, Hafsa, Abd Allāh ibn Umar, and other Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—that he should be executed. Some (1) said that this was on account of disbelief, while others said it was because of spreading corruption in the land. Most of them, however, regard his execution as a prescribed legal punishment (2).

Likewise, Abū Hanīfa imposes death as a discretionary punishment for repeated crimes when the category of offense warrants execution, as in the case of one who repeatedly commits sodomy or murders people by stealth in order to take (3) their property, and similar cases.

Evidence that a person who spreads corruption is to be killed whenever his evil cannot be stopped except by killing him may be drawn from what Muslim narrated in his Sahīh (4), from Arfaja al-Ashjaī, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: “Whoever comes to you while you are united under one leader, seeking to shatter your unity and divide your community [أ/ق 47], kill him.” In another narration: “There will be evils and corruption; whoever seeks to