Islamic Penology CHAPTER III

Islamic Penology: Contemporary Thought and

Governmental Practice

We may now turn from the historical development of the Shari'a, "Islamic law," to consider the development of a contemporary Islamic criminal jurisprudence and penology, and attempts to apply Islamic principles in contemporary state practice.

Beginning in the last century, reformers in various parts of the Islamic world sought to find ways by which Islamdom could meet the Western challenge, which was then reaching a pitch and intensity never before seen in the long relationship between the two civilizations. These reformers were found primarily in Egypt, long an intellectual center of Islamdom, and in British India, where Islam had its own distinctive experience, and faced the special challenge of adapting itself to conditions as the "crown jewel" of the British Empire, where Britishstyle jurisprudence was established in the fullest degree. The earliest reformers tended to be either "Westernizers," prepared to adopt Western ideas wholesale, including Western jurisprudence and penology, or traditionalists, who called for rejection of the West, but did not feel themselves called upon to develop in detail new Islamic formulations  a return to the pristine past being judged sufficient. Since that time, a number of "neotraditionalist" reformers have emerged, calling neither for Westernization nor a simple re

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1) The final line is clearly a misprint in the original text; alAlfi surely intends to say that if rehabilitation were the sole purpose of punishment, it would not be appropriate to punish incorrigibles  since they would presumably fail to learn or heed the intended lesson. He goes on to list three general objectives of punishment, objectives which are highly consistant with Saddiqi's list: It seems clear that punishment must have the following three objectives: justice, general deterrence, and reformation or rehabilitation. (alAlfi 1982: 231) Equality before the law with respect to punishment is a basic Islamic principle (alAlfi 1982: 230). Class, wealth, standing in the community, and other factors are not to be taking into account when administering punishment. (However, as we will see below, Na'in (1990) has raised questions regarding the application of Islamic punishments to nonMuslims.)Indeed, Saddiqi (nd: 10) gives the need to show that no inequality or favoritism is being given in penal administration as one reason for public administration of punishments. Even "sovereign immunity" from punishment is not generally accepted by Islamic jurists, though there is a lack
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Approximate Word count = 9908
Approximate Pages = 40 (250 words per page)