Hudud

Hudud (Arabic: حدود Ḥudūd, also transliterated hadud, hudood; singular hadd, , literal meaning "limit", or "restriction") is an Islamic concept: punishments which under Islamic law (Shariah) are mandated and fixed by God. The Shariah divided offenses into those against God and those against man. Crimes against God violated His Hudud, or 'boundaries'. These punishments were specified by the Quran, and in some instances by the Sunnah. They are namely for adultery, fornication, accusing someone of illicit sex but failing to present four eyewitnesses,apostasy (opinion is not unanimous on this crime.), consuming intoxicants, outrage (e.g. rebellion against the lawful Caliph, other forms of mischief against the Muslim state, or highway robbery), robbery and theft. Hudud offenses are overturned by the slightest of doubts (shubuhat). These punishments were rarely applied in pre-modern Islam.

These punishments range from public lashing to publicly stoning to death, amputation of hands and crucifixion. The crimes against hudud cannot be pardoned by the victim or by the state, and the punishments must be carried out in public. However, the evidentiary standards for these punishments were often impossibly high, and they were thus infrequently implemented in practice. Moreover, the Islamic prophet Muhammad ordered Muslim judges to 'ward off the Hudud by ambiguities.' The severe Hudud punishments were meant to convey the gravity of those offenses against God and to deter, not to be carried out. If a thief refused to confess, or if a confessed adulterer retracted his confession, the Hudud punishments would be waived.

In most Muslim nations in modern times public stoning and execution are relatively uncommon, although they are practised in Muslim nations that follow a strict interpretation of sharia, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Hudud is not the only form of punishment under sharia. There are two others: Qisas, certain occasions of retaliation as a punishment in a private dispute between two parties, and Tazir, a punishment left to an Islamic judge's discretion in some circumstances.

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