But if the beating is for a past offence, inflicted in requital for what the culprit has earned and as a deterrent from Allah for him and for others, it is carried out only to the extent required, and no minimum limit is fixed for it.

As for the maximum number of lashes in taʿzīr, three views are reported in the Hanbali school and elsewhere.

1. Ten lashes.
2. Fewer than the lightest of the prescribed ḥudūd—either thirty-nine strokes or seventy-nine strokes; this is the position of many jurists from the Hanafī, Shāfiʿī, and Hanbalī schools.
3. No numerical ceiling at all. This is the view held by the Mālikīs and by a group of Shāfiʿī and Hanbalī scholars, and it is one of the two opinions transmitted from Imām Aḥmad. However, where the taʿzīr concerns an offence for which a fixed penalty exists, the discretionary punishment must not reach that fixed amount: taʿzīr for theft below the nisāb must not approach the level of amputation; taʿzīr for merely rinsing the mouth with wine must not reach the ḥadd for drinking; and taʿzīr for slander that does not involve accusing someone of adultery must not equal the ḥadd for defamation.

This third view is the fairest, and it is confirmed by the practice of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and of his rightly guided successors. The Prophet ordered that the man whose wife had permitted him her maid-servant be flogged one hundred lashes and set the ḥadd aside because of uncertainty. Abū Bakr and ʿUmar each ordered that a man and a woman found under the same cover be given one hundred lashes apiece. ʿUmar likewise commanded that the man who had engraved a design on his signet-ring and had taken from the public treasury be whipped one hundred lashes, then another hundred the next day, and a further hundred on the third day. He also administered a severe, uncounted beating to Ṣabīgh ibn ʿAsl on account of the innovation he was spreading.

Whoever’s corruption on earth cannot be curbed except by execution is to be executed—such as one who divides the ranks of the Muslims or one who calls people to religious innovations. Allah the Exalted said: “For that reason We decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul—unless it be in retaliation for a soul or for spreading corruption in the land—it is as though he had slain all mankind” (Qur’an 5:32).

It is authentically reported that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “If allegiance is pledged to two caliphs, kill the latter of the two.” 1