Islam and Human Rights — Page 100
Isl am and Hum an R ights 100 of imprisonment has been substituted and the literal “cutting off ” of hands is exacted in few States and in rare cases. For this, jurists and scholars have found justification in canons of inter pretation. Even at the very outset “both hands” (the term employed in the text) were not cut off for a single aggra vated offence, though that would be the strict literal mean ing of the expression. The use of the plural where the singular was by common accord taken to be meant, furnishes a clue to the secondary meaning of the expression. The term aidee (hands) has both a primary (physical) connot - ation and a secondary one. For instance, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are described as “possessing hands and eyes” (38:46), which obviously means “possessed of power and vision”. Aidee (hands), therefore, might well connote strength or capacity. Qat’a ( cutting off ) has also a secondary connotation i. e. circumscribing the use of. For instance qat’ a al lisan (cutting off of the tongue) means imposing silence upon, or circumscribing or prohibiting the use of speech. Thus “cutting off hands” would have the secondary connotation, circumscribing their capacity or activity, or prohibiting their free movement. In this context the following examples of the use of qat’ a or its derivatives may be of interest.