Theft
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Theft or Stealing (Arabic: السِّرْقَة) is the secret stealing of others' movable property.[1] Theft is forbidden and is among the major sins.[2] In hadiths, the consequences of theft include economic insecurity, disputes, murder, and a lack of interest in trade and commerce.[3] According to jurists, theft incurs liability[4] and the thief must return the actual stolen property or its equivalent to its owner,[5] and in case of the owner's death, to his heirs, and if there are no heirs, it must be delivered to the Imam (a).[6]
Jurists, citing the verse "As for the thief, man or woman, cut off their hands…]]",[7] believe that the prescribed punishment (hadd for theft) is cutting off the fingers of the thief's hand.[8] Of course, they consider certain conditions necessary for implementing the prescribed punishment for theft,[9] and if those conditions are not met, the punishment will not be carried out and the thief will receive ta'zir (discretionary punishment).[10] Among these conditions is breaking into a secure place (hirz) and stealing property from within it[11] without being observed by the owner.[12] Jurists consider "hirz" to be something that, according to the people's common view, has the capability of protecting property.[13] According to al-Tabrisi, hirz is a place where no one can enter and dispose of things without the owner's permission.[14]
An adulterer does not commit adultery while believing in God and the Day of Judgment, and likewise a thief does not steal while having faith.[15]
According to jurists, the prescribed punishment for theft does not apply to pickpockets[16] and embezzlers[17] who steal openly and without breaking into a hirz (secure place),[18] and they only receive ta'zir (discretionary punishment).[19] In their view, regarding the implementation of the punishment for theft for pickpockets or bag snatchers, if the theft is from an inner pocket of clothing, it is considered equivalent to breaking into a hirz, and the punishment is cutting off the fingers of the thief's hand.[20] However, if someone steals from a person's outer pocket, which is visible, the thief will receive ta'zir because the outer pocket is not ruled as a hirz (secure place).[21] Imam Khomeini believed that if the people's common view considers theft from an outer pocket to be theft from hirz, it can lead to the implementation of the hadd (prescribed punishment) for theft.[22]
Regarding the punishment for theft in cyberspace, jurists believe that if theft in cyberspace has the conditions for hadd punishment, such as breaking into a hirz (e.g. decrypting smart cards and withdrawing money from them), the ruling is cutting off the thief's fingers; otherwise, the thief will receive ta'zir.[23]
Notes
- ↑ Ḥillī, Kitāb al-sarāʾir, vol. 2, p. 483; Fāḍil Jāwād, Masālik al-afḥām, vol. 4, p. 203; Fayḍ al-Kāshānī, Tafsīr al-Ṣāfī, vol. 1, p. 441.
- ↑ Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 13, p. 310.
- ↑ Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 18, p. 482.
- ↑ Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rawḍat al-bahīyya, vol. 9, p. 305; Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 41, p. 544.
- ↑ Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rawḍat al-bahīyya, vol. 9, p. 305.
- ↑ Ḥillī, Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām, vol. 4, p. 178; Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 41, p. 544.
- ↑ Qurʾān 5:84.
- ↑ Sayyid Murtaḍā, al-Intiṣār, p. 528-529; Ṭūsī, al-Mabsūṭ, p. 19; Ṭūsī, al-Khilāf, vol. 5, p. 452; Ḥillī, Mukhtalaf al-Shīʿa, vol. 9, p. 249; Marʿashī Najafī, Aḥkām al-Sirqa, p. 316.
- ↑ See: Ḥillī, Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām, vol. 4, p. 159; Marʿashī Najafī, Aḥkām al-Sirqa, p. 467-472; Tabrīzī, Usus al-ḥudūd wa al-taʿzīrāt, p. 309.
- ↑ See: Sayyid Murtaḍā, al-Intiṣār, p. 528-529; Ṭūsī, al-Mabsūṭ, vol. 8, p. 19; Ṭūsī, al-Khilāf, vol. 5, p. 452; Ḥillī, Mukhtalaf al-Shīʿa, vol. 9, p. 249.
- ↑ Khomeinī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 2, p. 458.
- ↑ Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rawḍat al-bahīyya, vol. 9, p. 231; Fāḍil Hindī, Kashf al-lithām, vol. 10, p. 568.
- ↑ Fāḍil Hindī, Kashf al-lithām, vol. 10, p. 599; Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rawḍat al-bahīyya, vol. 9, p. 245; Fayḍ al-Kāshānī, Mafātiḥ al-sharāʾiʿ, vol. 2, p. 92.
- ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, vol. 3, p. 297.
- ↑ Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 14, p. 236.
- ↑ Shahīd al-Thānī, Masālik al-afhām, vol. 15, p. 20; Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 41, p. 596; Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rawḍat al-bahīyya, vol. 9, p. 304; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Rīyāḍ al-masāʾil, vol. 13, p. 628.
- ↑ Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rawḍat al-bahīyya, vol. 9, p. 306; Muqaddas Ardabīlī, Majmaʿ al-fāʾida, vol. 13, p. 291.
- ↑ Gulpāyigānī, al-Durr al-manḍūd, vol. 3, p. 309.
- ↑ Gulpāyigānī, al-Durr al-manḍūd, vol. 3, p. 309.
- ↑ Ḥillī, Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām, vol. 4, p. 162.
- ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Khilāf, vol. 5, p. 451.
- ↑ Khomeinī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 2, p. 486.
- ↑ Markaz-i Taḥqīqāt-i Fiqhī-yi Quwwa-yi Qaḍāʾīyya. Majmūʿa-yi ārā-yi Fiqhī-Qaḍāʾī, vol. 1, p. 57.
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