The Unity of Muslims — Page 30
30 Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad The Prophet s as said that he has no right to punish on his own. The penalty for adultery in Mosaic law was death 15 , and until then, the offence was being adjudicated according to that law. Repeating his query, the man asked, ‘If death is the punishment of adultery, and the husband has seen his wife’s infidelity, why can’t he kill her?’ Prophet Muhammad s as replied, ‘The husband has no right to punish; only a qadhi has this prerogative. So if the husband kills her, he will be sentenced to death. ’ Thus, Islam does not permit extrajudicial punishment. It seeks to ensure there is no haste in seeking revenge and that all facts and evidence of a crime are brought forward. Only a qadhi can assess all these aspects of a case, no one else. Though seeking justice is one’s right, taking the law into one’s own hands is not. A criminal can only be punished through the judiciary. The injunction of Jihad introduces another dimension of Islam. Jihad is not an individual act but a collective endeavour by the community when needed. According to Islam, when the imam declares the time for Jihad, every Muslim is duty-bound to fulfil this obligation. Failure to do so would violate both Sharia 15 Deuteronomy 22:22 [Publishers]