As for the second section, it concerns the prohibition of interceding in a hadd—that is, in a punishment that the Sacred Law has set in fixed measure.
Know that the penalties for sins are of two broad categories:
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Penalties of the Hereafter. These rest entirely with Allah. Concerning them He says, “Indeed, Allah does not forgive associating others with Him, but He forgives anything short of that for whomever He wills.” Every sin other than shirk may, by Allah’s grace and mercy, be forgiven.
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Penalties in this world. These are of many kinds. Some of them are precisely defined in the Sharia; it is impermissible to go beyond their limits.
Take, for example, theft: the thief’s hand is to be cut off. It is not allowed to cut off his leg in addition to his hand, nor to gouge out his eye, nor to mutilate his ear. One must not exceed what Allah and His Messenger have prescribed, namely the cutting of the hand.
Likewise, fornication (zina): when the offender has never been married, his hadd is one hundred lashes and exile for a full year—meaning he is banished from his town to another place for twelve months. This punishment may neither be increased nor reduced, for it is one of the hudud.
The same applies to those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land: their recompense is that they be killed, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, or be banished from the land.
There are, however, other punishments that are not fixed in measure. These are left to the discretion of the ruler—that is, the shar‘i judge or whoever is entrusted with formulating and enforcing penalties—and in such matters there is broader scope. Sometimes the punishment is financial, requiring the offender to pay a fine; at other times it is dismissal from office, imprisonment, or public shaming by