The Quranic Concept of Punishment
Al-Risala (English), March 1988, p. 11
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
The Quranic Concept of Punishment
1988 3 March 11 The Quranic Concept of Punishment (249) A Modern Confirmation. Now there is the view that carrying out the death sentence, in this private, low-key manner has little impact on the public conscience. What should provide a fear-inspiring, moral lesson for all has become just another news item.
The death penalty, held at one stage in America to be a “cruel and unusual punishment” was abolished, but only temporarily, for soaring crime rates subsequently lead the Supreme Court to reintroduce it in 1982. However, a more humane method of carrying out the death sentence was adopted: the criminal was rendered unconscious, given a lethal injection, then quietly buried.
Now there is the view that carrying out the death sentence, in this private, low-key manner has little impact on the public conscience. What should provide a fear-inspiring, moral lesson for all has become just another news item.
The American news agency AFP reports from Huntsville, Texas, that the Attorney General of that state, Jim Maddox, has called for executions in Texas to be filmed and shown on television, so that the public can see how a criminal is put to death. (Texas has executed 28 prisoners by lethal injection since capital punishment was reintroduced in 1982). His view is that executions have become so routine that their deterrent value is being lost. The Times of India, June 30, 1987).
Here we have up-to-the-minute confirmation of the time-honoured Islamic concept of punishment, i.e. that to be effective, it must be commensurate with the crime, rigorously applied and meted out in public.
