bring about unforeseen obstacles, leaving this expiation still hanging over you and weighing heavily on your shoulders. You must therefore hasten to clear your record and absolve yourself of this grave obligation.

Discretionary Punishment (taʿzīr)
Question: What is taʿzīr? I hear this word often but do not know its meaning.
Answer: Linguistically, taʿzīr means discipline. In the Islamic legal sense, it is disciplinary action for every act of disobedience that carries neither a fixed legal penalty (ḥadd) nor an expiation (kaffārah). The extent of taʿzīr is left to the judge’s independent judgment: he may reprimand, scold, give a verbal warning, administer a beating, impose imprisonment, or apply any other measure he deems sufficient to deter the offender from that sin.

Sincere Repentance
Question: The questioner says that he used to commit a major sin that warrants a sharʿī fixed legal penalty on its perpetrator, but he has now resolved to repent sincerely, regrets what has passed, and intends to perform ḥajj. He asks whether he must surrender himself to the Islamic court so that the ḥadd can be carried out on him, or whether his sincere repentance is sufficient and Allah will veil him in this world and the Hereafter. What is your view on this, may Allah preserve you?
Answer: He must repent to Allah, Exalted is He, with a sincere repentance, adhere firmly to his religion by performing the acts of worship and obligatory duties that Allah has enjoined upon him, avoid the prohibitions that Allah the Most High has forbidden, and be truthful in