—of the thief, his vileness, and his ignoble nature, for he is willing to risk losing his own hand over paltry, trifling objects.

This wording is a form of rhetorical eloquence: it repels, vilifies, and casts sinful acts in a hateful, repugnant image.

The majority of jurists then disagreed about the precise monetary threshold (nisab) at which the hand is to be severed. Numerous opinions exist; we shall mention the stronger ones.

• Mālik, Aḥmad, and Isḥāq held that the nisab is one-quarter dinar, or three dirhams, or merchandise whose value equals either of the two.

• Al-Shāfiʿī maintained that the nisab is a quarter gold dinar, or whatever equals a quarter dinar in silver or other goods. Many scholars adopted this view, among them ʿĀʾishah, ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, al-Awzāʿī, al-Layth, and Abū Thawr.

• Abū Ḥanīfah, his companions, and Sufyān al-Thawrī held that the nisab is ten coined dirhams or their equivalent in gold or merchandise.

Imām Aḥmad and Mālik cited the report recorded by Aḥmad and Muslim in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “The thief’s hand is not to be cut off except for a quarter dinar and above.”

At that time, a quarter dinar equaled three dirhams, for a dinar was valued at twelve dirhams; this is narrated by Aḥmad from Ibn ʿUmar. Likewise, in the hadith under discussion Ibn ʿUmar relates that he ﷺ “ordered the hand to be severed over a shield worth three dirhams.”

Al-Shāfiʿī and the remaining majority relied on the aforementioned hadith, “There is no cutting except for a quarter dinar and above,” making gold the original standard for determining the nisab. This does not contradict Ibn ʿUmar’s report, for three dirhams in that period were precisely a quarter dinar, the exchange rate being twelve dirhams to one dinar.

Abū Ḥanīfah and his followers argued from what is authentically reported in the two Ṣaḥīḥs—that he ﷺ cut off a hand for a shield—while the shield’s valuation is disputed. Al-Bayhaqī and al-Ṭaḥāwī transmitted, through Ibn ʿAbbās, that the shield in the Prophet’s time sold for ten dirhams.

Although this narration conflicts with the two Ṣaḥīḥs, which set its value at three dirhams, caution in a matter that permits the removal of a protected limb dictates adopting the higher amount, for it is the more prevalent report.

They also cited what ʿAmr b. Shuʿayb transmitted from his father, from his grandfather, that the Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no cutting except for ten dirhams,” but the scholars have declared this hadith weak.

The jurists likewise differed as to which specific part of the hand is to be amputated, producing several views; the soundest, and the one espoused by the majority,