the Muslim community and one who calls people to religious innovations. Allah Most High says:

“For that reason We decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a person—unless in retribution for murder or for spreading corruption in the land—it is as though he had killed all mankind.”

In the Sahīh, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is reported to have said:

“If allegiance is pledged to two caliphs, execute the latter of them.”

He also said:

“Whoever comes to you while you are united under one man, seeking to divide your community, strike his neck with the sword, whoever he may be.”

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered the execution of a man who had deliberately attributed a lie to him.”

“Ibn al-Daylamī asked him about those who would not desist from drinking wine. He replied: ‘Whoever does not desist from it, execute him.’”

For this reason, Mālik and a group of Ahmad’s followers held that executing a spy is permissible. Mālik and those followers of al-Shāfiʿī who agreed with him also held that a propagator of religious innovations should be executed. This brief treatise is not the place to discuss that, for the public inspector has no authority to execute or amputate.

Forms of discretionary punishment include banishment and exile. Umar ibn al-Khattāb would impose banishment to Khaybar as a discretionary punishment for drinking wine. He also banished Sabīgh ibn Isl to Basra and sent Nasr ibn Hajjāj away to Basra when women became infatuated with him.

Section

“Discretionary punishment through financial penalties” is also sanctioned in specific cases