#466: Ruling on the Explanation of the Hadith do not Flog Anyone more than 10 Stripes except for Hadd

QUESTION

Sahih Bukhari (Limits and Punishments set by Allah (Hudood) – 73)

Narrated Abu Burda Al-Ansari, I heard the Prophet (pbuh) saying, “Do not flog anyone more than ten stripes except if he is involved in a crime necessitating Allah’s legal Punishment.”

JazaakAllaahu khairan sir

ANSWER

Alhamdulillāh.

The Hadīth to which you referred was recorded by the Sunan collecting Imāms except for An-Nasa’ī, with the wording:

((لا يجلد فوق عشر جلدات إلا في حد من حدود الله
“A person is not flogged above 10 strokes except on a Hadd among the Hudūd punishments of Allāh”
This is the wording in the Books of the Sunan.

The Ulamā differed on the interpretation and practice of this Hadīth, And this difference is based on two facts:

The first is whether the word ‘Hadd’ as used in the Hadīth refers to the Qur’an’s use of it where it is used to mean the limits of Allāh?
Which is the literal meaning. Or the customary usage with the Fuqahā where it is used to mean the Capital Punishments?

That it means the Limits of Allāh (I.e what Allāh commanded and forbade) is the interpretation of Shaykhu Al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawzīyyah, Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbalī, and others. Shaykh Muhammad Sālih Al-Uthaymīn inclined to this position in Ash-Sharhu Al-Mumti’. Shaykh Muhammad Al-Hasan Ad-Daduw held this position too, and the Mujāhid Shaykh Abū Yahya Al-Lībī – rahimahullāh.

While the majority of the interpreters of the Hadīth held the contrary opinion, that it means the Capital Punishments. That was the position of Imām Ibn Hajar, Al-Mubārakfūrī, As-Sindī, and others.

The second is based on the interpretation and practice.

The position of Imām Al-Layth, Imām Ahmad’s most apparent position, some of the Shāfi’īs and Is’hāq, is that the Hadīth should be interpreted literally and by that, it were not permissible to punish with more than ten strokes of cane unless the punishment is a Hadd (Capital punishment)

Imam Abu Muhammad Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusī and the Muhaddith Imām Ibn Daqīq Al-‘Īd also held this position.

The majority of the Imāms went upon its opposite and they held that it were permissible to punish with more than ten strokes.

Imām Ibn Hajar Al-‘Asqalānī – rahimahullāh – said:

“Mālik, Ash-Shāfi’ī and the two Companions of Abū Hanīfah said: it is permissible to punish with more than ten stroke.

Then they differed after that. Ash-Shāfi’ī said: it (the no of strokes) shouldn’t be up to the least of the Hudūd and others said: it should be left to the discretion of the Imām without regard to whether or not it is up to the no of strokes of the Hadd or not. This is the position of Abū Thawr…”

An-Nawawī said:

“And the majority among the Sahābah and the Tābi’īn and those that came after them held that it were permissible to flog more than ten. Then they differed on the limit.

Mālik and his fellows, Abū Yusuf, Muhammad, Abū Thawr and At-Tahāwī said: this cannot be restricted. Instead, it is left to the Imām’s discretion while Abū Hanīfah said: it shouldn’t be more than forty”

The most correct position, and Allāh knows best is what was held by Shaykhu Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah – rahimahullāh – and the fellows of his school that other accompanying Hadīth show that the Hadīth refers to the commandments of Allāh and not the Capital Punishments and that means that if the offense that a person commits is not one in which he went against the command of Allāh, he shouldn’t be flogged more than ten.
Allāhu A’alam.

Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran .

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