Chapter: The Prescribed Punishment for Theft

The legal basis for amputation is found in the Qur’an, the Sunnah, scholarly consensus, and analogical reasoning. Allah the Exalted says: “As for the male thief and the female thief, cut off their hands as recompense for what they earned, a deterrent from Allah. Allah is Almighty, All-Wise” (Q 5:38).

The Sunnah will be cited in the following hadiths. The scholars have unanimously agreed on this ruling, relying on these evidences. Moreover, both analogy and sound wisdom dictate that every prescribed punishment be implemented exactly as Allah has commanded, in order to protect life, honour, and property.

Hence we observe that lands which apply Allah’s limits and carry out His punishments enjoy security, even when their military resources are meagre. By contrast, chaos, bloodshed, the violation of honour, and the plundering of wealth are widespread in countries that govern by man-made laws—imagining this to be mercy toward criminal aggressors, though it merely betrays ignorance of true mercy and its proper place—even if such countries are powerful and “civilised.” Their collective life passes between brutality and looting.

Hadith 1
ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Prophet ﷺ ordered the hand to be cut off for a shield whose value was three dirhams. In another wording: “its price was three dirhams.”

Hadith 2
ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said she heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declare: “The hand is to be cut off for a quarter dinar and above.”

Unfamiliar terms
• al-qaṭʿ (cutting): the command to sever the hand.
• qīmatuhu (its value): the price to which buyers are normally willing to go.
• ath-thaman (the price): what is paid in exchange for the sold item.
• al-mijann (shield): with a kasrah on the mīm and a fatḥah on the jīm, followed by a doubled nūn. It is the shield used to ward off sword-blows, derived from ijtinān and ikhtifāʾ (concealment) because the rider hides behind it; the initial mīm is given a kasrah because the word denotes an instrument.

Overall meaning
Allah, exalted be He, has guaranteed the inviolability of people’s blood, honour, and property through every means that deters corrupt aggressors. Accordingly, He prescribed that the punishment for a thief—one who clandestinely removes property from its secure place—be the severing of the limb with which he seized the stolen goods, so that the amputation expiates his sin, deters him and others from such base conduct, and turns them toward