Draft:Exile

Exile or Nafy al-Balad (Banishment) is a form of Islamic punishment that entails the expulsion of a criminal from the location of the crime or their place of residence. Under this ruling, the offender is prohibited from residing in their homeland or city and is mandated to live in a designated alternative location for a specified duration. In Islamic penal jurisprudence, exile is prescribed for specific crimes, including non-muhsan fornication (zinā-yi ghayr-i muḥṣana), Qawwadi, and Muḥārabah (waging war against God). Prominent Shi'a jurists classify exile as a Ḥadd (fixed punishment) for these offenses, whereas in cases such as filicide (a father killing his child), they regard it as Ta'zīrī (discretionary punishment). The application of exile varies across these crimes, with distinctions in execution and specific rulings.

Throughout history, rulers have employed exile as a political instrument to suppress and control opposition. Notable examples include the Prophet Muhammad's (s) exile of al-Ḥakam b. Abī l-ʿĀṣ from Medina to al-Ṭāʾif; the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil's forced relocation of Imam al-Hādī (a) and Imam al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī (a) to Samarra; the mass exile of leading Shi'a jurists from the ʿAtabāt ʿĀliyāt in Iraq to Iran in 1341/1923; the exile of Imam Khomeini to Turkey; and the Pahlavi government's exile of Sayyid ʿAlī Ḥusaynī Khāmeneʾī from Mashhad to Iranshahr and Jiroft.

Introduction and Status

Exile is defined as a punishment necessitating the expulsion of a criminal from the site of the crime or their residence. This concept appears in jurisprudential texts under two terms: Taghrīb (estrangement or removal from people) and Nafy al-Balad (banishment to another city). The execution of exile varies depending on the crime, such as non-muhsan fornication, Qawwadi, and Muḥārabah. Forms of exile include removal from the place of Ḥadd execution, residence, or crime ; imprisonment ; expulsion from one city to another ; and permanent displacement. The legitimacy of exile as a punishment is established by the four sources of Islamic law: the Holy Qur'an , the Sunna, Ijmāʿ (consensus), and rational proof.

Penal Nature

The majority of Imami jurists classify exile as a Ḥadd punishment. However, some jurists, including Ibn Fahd al-Ḥillī and Ṣāḥib al-Jawāhir, categorize it as Ta'zīr, arguing that its application and duration are subject to the discretion of the Sharia ruler (Ḥākim al-Sharʿ).

Instances of Hadd Crimes

Shi'a jurists identify exile as a Ḥadd punishment for specific crimes, including non-muhsan fornication, pimping (intermediation for illicit sexual acts), and Muḥārabah.

Shaykh al-Kulaynī dedicates a chapter in al-Kāfī to the exile of a thief. Similarly, Shaykh al-Ṭūsī in Tahdhīb and al-ʿAyyāshī in Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī narrate a hadith from Samāʿah implying the exile of a thief. However, Majlisī I notes in Rawḍat al-muttaqīn that only the Akhbaris have acted upon these narrations.

Non-muhsan Zina

Unmarried fornicators (non-muhsan), or those without access to a spouse, are sentenced to one year of exile to a location other than their homeland, in addition to receiving one hundred lashes and having their head shaved.

Prominent jurists generally apply the ruling of exile to a single man or a married man who has not consummated the marriage (performed penetration). However, Shaykh al-Ṭūsī and Imam Khomeini exclude single men from this ruling. Furthermore, while most Imami jurists hold that female fornicators are not subject to exile, a group including ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī in Mukhtalaf al-Shīʿa, al-Shahīd al-Thānī in Masālik al-afhām, Muqaddas Ardabīlī in Majmaʿ al-fāʾida, and al-Khoei in Mabānī takmilat al-minhāj argue that female fornicators also merit exile.

Jurists differ on the starting point of exile. Shaykh al-Ṭūsī in al-Nihāya and Fāḍil Hindī in Kashf al-lithām state that exile begins from the city where the fornication occurred. Conversely, al-Khoei in Mabānī takmilat al-minhāj and Imam Khomeini in Taḥrīr al-wasīla maintain that exile commences from the location where the lashing sentence was executed. A third group, including Ibn Ḥamza in al-Wasīla, ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī in Taḥrīr al-aḥkām, al-Shahīd al-Thānī in al-Rawḍat al-bahiyya, and Ṣāḥib al-Jawāhir in Jawāhir al-kalām, assert that the fornicator must be exiled from his homeland.

Regarding the determination of the place of exile, ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī and Fāḍil Hindī argue that the choice lies with the fornicator, not the ruler. However, Imam Khomeini and Sabzawārī consider it to be at the discretion of the ruler.

Qawwadi

In cases of Qawwadi (procuring or intermediation for illicit sexual relations), jurists mandate exile for the pimp (*qawwād*) in addition to the Ḥadd punishment of 75 lashes, basing this on a narration from ʿAbd Allāh b. Sinān from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a). Most jurists restrict exile to male pimps, but Sallār al-Daylamī and Muqaddas Ardabīlī extend it to women as well. Ibn Idrīs al-Ḥillī specifies the duration of exile as less than one year, whereas Imam Khomeini and Fāḍil Lankarānī leave it to the discretion of the Sharia ruler. Others, such as Ṣāḥib al-Jawāhir and Ibn Fahd al-Ḥillī, state that exile continues until the pimp repents.

Moharebeh

Based on the Verse of Moharebeh and consensus, jurists identify exile as one of the four punishments for a *muḥārib* (one who wages war against God).

Opinions vary on the duration of a *muḥārib*'s exile. One group, including Shaykh al-Mufīd in al-Muqniʿa, Ibn Idrīs in al-Sarāʾir, and al-Shahīd al-Thānī in al-Rawḍat al-bahiyya, posits that exile continues until the *muḥārib* repents. Another group, including Imam Khomeini in Taḥrīr al-wasīla and Ibn Saʿīd al-Ḥillī in al-Jāmiʿ li-l-sharāʾiʿ, argues that exile must last at least one year, regardless of repentance; if repentance does not occur after one year, the exile continues. This view relies on specific hadiths. A third group, including al-Khoei and Mūsavī Ardabīlī, maintains that the *muḥārib*'s exile is permanent, even if they repent.

Shaykh al-Ṭūsī applies the ruling of exile equally to men and women, whereas ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī in Mukhtalaf al-Shīʿa notes that Ibn Junayd exempted female *muḥāribs* from exile.

Instances of Ta'ziri Crimes

Filicide

In cases where a father kills his child, Ibn Saʿīd al-Ḥillī in al-Jāmiʿ li-l-sharāʾiʿ and al-Khoei in Mabānī takmilat al-minhāj, citing a narration from Imam al-Bāqir (a), have issued a Fatwa for the father's exile, leaving the duration to the ruler's discretion. This ruling does not apply if the father is merely an accomplice to the murder. Jurists have extended this ruling to grandfathers, although Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī expresses doubt regarding this extension in al-Mukhtaṣar al-nāfiʿ.

Bestiality

Intercourse with an animal is another crime for which exile has been prescribed. While ʿAllāma Majlisī notes in Malādh al-akhyār that jurists generally do not list exile as a punishment for this act, others such as Ṣāḥib al-Jawāhir and al-Khoei, relying on a specific narration, rule that exile should accompany the Ḥadd punishment.

Political Exile

Historically, rulers have utilized exile as a mechanism to restrict and control political opponents. Morteza Motahhari notes in Majmūʿa-yi āthār that Muslim scholars derive the concept of exile from the phrase lā yujāwirūnaka in Qur'an 33:60. The Loghat-nāmeh of Dehkhoda, citing Farhang-i Niẓām, suggests that the definition of exile as "expelling someone from their homeland due to a political crime" emerged in Iran following the establishment of the constitutional monarchy.

Notable instances of political exile include:

• The Prophet Muhammad (s) exiled al-Ḥakam b. Abī l-ʿĀṣ from Medina to al-Ṭāʾif.
• The Caliph ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān exiled the Companion Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī from Medina to Syria and subsequently to al-Rabadha.
• Al-Mutawakkil's summoning of Imam al-Hādī (a) and Imam al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī (a) to Samarra is considered a form of exile.
• The exile of Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn Asadābādī.
• During World War I, the British government exiled Sayyid Muḥammad Taqī Khwānsārī from Basra, Iraq, to Singapore.
• In 1923, British authorities in Iraq exiled Muḥammad Khāliṣī-zādeh, Sayyid Muḥammad (son of Sayyid Ḥasan Ṣadr), and other political activists to Iran.
• Also in 1923, Sayyid Abū l-Ḥasan al-Iṣfahānī, Mīrzā Ḥusayn Nāʾīnī, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Karīm Ḥāʾirī Yazdī, and thirty other jurists were exiled from the Atabat to Iran for issuing a fatwa against the Constituent Assembly elections in Iraq.
• Muḥammad Taqī Bāfqī was exiled from Qom to Rayy for protesting the attire of women in the Pahlavi family, and Sayyid Ḥasan Mudarris was exiled to Khaf during the reign of Reza Pahlavi.
• Muḥammad Taqī Bahlūl, a cleric opposing Kashf-e Hijab under Reza Shah, was forced to flee to Afghanistan and effectively exiled when denied return.
• In 1964, the Pahlavi government exiled Imam Khomeini to Turkey and later to Iraq.
• Sayyid ʿAlī Ḥusaynī Khāmeneʾī was exiled from Mashhad to Iranshahr and Jiroft by the Pahlavi regime.
• Other opponents of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi were exiled internally, including Ḥusayn ʿAlī Montazerī to Tabas and Saqqez, Sayyid Maḥmūd Ṭāleghānī to Zabol and Baft, and various clerics to Jiroft.

Monograph

Najm al-Dīn Ṭabasī (b. 1955) authored al-Nafy wa l-taghrīb fī maṣādir al-tashrīʿ al-Islāmī, a comprehensive work exploring the principles, cases, and rights of the exiled in Islamic jurisprudence.