Chapter: The Ruling on Highwaymen (muḥāribūn)

Anyone who blocks the roads, terrorizes those who travel them, and spreads corruption on earth by seizing property, shedding blood, and violating the sanctities that Allah has forbidden to violate is deemed a muḥārib and falls under Allah’s ruling concerning those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption on earth—whether he is Muslim or non-Muslim, free or enslaved, and whether he actually succeeds in taking money or committing murder or not.

Allah, exalted is He, has linked the act of spreading corruption in the land to the killing of a soul—an act for which the perpetrator is regarded as though he had killed all humanity. Therefore, when a person reaches this level, it becomes incumbent upon the ruler to pursue him by every means possible until he captures him. Once captured, the ruler is free—exercising his own ijtihād—to choose whichever punishment he deems most deterrent and most intimidating for others, in proportion to the offender’s deeds. He may execute him and then crucify him, crucify him alive, behead him whether or not he has actually killed anyone, amputate his right hand and left foot, flog him and exile him from the district where he used to commit his crimes (as the adulterer is banished), or imprison him there or elsewhere, should the ruler judge that to be more appropriate.