Hirabah
Encyclopedia
Hirābah is an Arabic word for “piracy”, or “unlawful warfare”. Hirabah comes from the root
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
hariba, which means “to become angry and enraged”. The noun harb (حرب, pl. hurub حروب) means “war” and/or “enemy.” One who commits hirabah would be a hirabi.
In Iran, the same crime is known as moharebeh
Moharebeh
Moharebeh is the title of a crime in Islamic law. Mohareb refers to the perpetrator of the crime. Moharebeh has been translated in English language media sources variously as "waging war against God," "war against God and the state," "enmity against God." Mohareb has been translated by English...
and one who commits it is a mohareb.
Punishment for Hirabah
The Qur'an commands strict punishment for those who spread disorder in the land. As it is in the Qur'an:"The punishments of those who wage war against Allah and His Prophet and strive to spread disorder in the land are to execute them in an exemplary way or to crucify them or to amputate their hands and feet from opposite sides or to banish them from the land. Such is their disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom save those who repent before you overpower them; you should know that Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Ever Merciful."
— Surah al-Ma'ida 5:33-34.
According to these verses, the punishments permissible for spreading disorder in the land include:
- Taqtil (تقتيل: execution that serves a severe warning to others i.e. stoningStoningStoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
) - Taslib (تصليب: crucifixion)
- Amputating limbs from opposite sides
- Nafi (نفى: exile)
A judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
can give any of these punishments depending on the severity of the crime and condition of the criminal. These punishments can be prescribed for any crime that can threaten the society at large. Examples of these crimes are robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
(unlike theft
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
which has a different punishment), rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, and terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
.
Relation with Jihad
Hirabah has been suggested as a better description of a punishment than the often-used jihadJihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
which is often misconstrued as referring to religious terrorism. The argument is that jihad means literally "struggle". The meaning is broad, and can include personal, internal struggle to purify oneself as well as external struggle for justice. By definition, Jihad cannot be a bad thing, as jihad means "to struggle in the way of God", or "to struggle to improve one's self and/or society". Therefore, someone who is misguidedly responsible for unlawful killing and chaos in the land can only be described as someone engaged in hirabah.