Muslim PerspectiveShaykh Sadique Muncey, Contributor
Punishment has always been considered an integral part of the concept of justice. As such they cannot be meted out to anyone for someone else's action, for acts intended but not performed or for acts done under duress or while in a state of insanity. Everyone therefore must be equal before the law and their guilt be established by due process of justice.
The death penalty as a deterrent and a means of eradicating evil form its root and eventually the society, has always been criticised by anti-death penalty activists who actually claim that innocent victims have been executed for crimes that they did not actually commit. Though this may be true, it is not an argument to raise doubts about the effectiveness of the death penalty but rather to investigate the judicial process in place.
They also raise issues that it is a primitive and barbaric method of punishment not suitable for the 21st century. As such Muslims and Islam continue to be victimised for inflicting such forms of punishment. The fact of the matter is that the death penalty has its origin from Allah (God) and as such has to be something good for the preservation of the society. But why confine this issue to only Muslims? Why is there complete silence on Biblical passages that advocate for the death penalty for crimes such as homosexuality (Lev 20/13), idolatry (Deut.13/5), the practise of magic (obeah) (Lev 20/27), fornication (Deut. 22/20-21) adultery (Lev 20 /10) blasphemy (Lev. 24/16) and murder (Gen. 9/5-6)? These verses are not only supportive of the death penalty but also demonstrate a divine sanction!
For the supercessionist Christian, who believes the New Testament replaces the Old Testament the door of repentance has been offered as a substitute for capital punishment. Again repentance by itself cannot be a substitute for punishment. If this was the case God would not have legislated and approved of the death penalty in the Old Testament, which is a means of protecting and safeguarding the society from moral decadence and terrorism. For the egalitarian Christians both the New and Old Testament reside side by side and as such offered the 'abrogation theory' as a means of abolishing the death penalty. They use the text in which Jesus said to his people who were about to stone the adulteress "He that is without sin among you let him cast a stone at her"( John 8/7). But how is this verse reconciled with Jesus's statements, "I come not to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfil"? One must remember that the era in which Jesus came was steeped in sin and transgression to the extent where the temples were used as gambling purposes. Against this background it would not have been correct to execute any form of punishment as the laws of God are just .
From this incident we find consistency with the execution of punishment under Islamic law and that involves the preparedness of the state to enforce moral habits and remove all form of vices that leads to sin. So if persons are bombarded in any society by promiscuity which leads him or her to commit sin how then can the punishment be executed? It was for this very reason Jesus did not execute the punishment as the society, like ours today, was plunged into moral decadence.
The death penalty should always be viewed as a part of a vastly larger integrated whole which cannot be properly understood nor justifiably implemented in isolation. Thus the realisation of God being the Creator and The Absolutely Just will help us to acknowledge that it is only He who can establish an intricate network of inter-relationships and roles, mutual rights and obligations and consequent rewards and punishments on the basis of absolute standards of justice. When this is achieved then society will only seek to flourish and evil will ultimately be eradicated.
Shaykh Sadique Muncey teaches Islam.
