al-Hudud wa al-Tazirat inda Ibn al-Qayyim
- Author died
- 1429 AH
- Editions
- Dar Al-'Asimah lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
al-Hudud wa al-Tazirat inda Ibn al-Qayyim (Prescribed and Discretionary Punishments according to Ibn al-Qayyim) is a comparative legal study by the Saudi scholar Bakr Abu Zayd (d. 1429 AH / 2008 CE), examining the penal jurisprudence of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751 AH / 1350 CE) .
Background and Purpose
The work originated as the author's Master's thesis presented at the Higher Judicial Institute in Riyadh on the night of 25 Muharram 1400 AH (December 1979 CE), where it received an "Excellent" grade . In its original submission, the thesis spanned 808 pages divided into two parts; Abu Zayd published the first biographical part independently under the title Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: Hayatuhu wa-Atharuhu (Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: His Life and Works), reserving the second part for this legal study .
Abu Zayd compiled the book by extracting Ibn al-Qayyim's legal opinions from 31 of his printed works, encompassing roughly 60 volumes and approximately 20,000 pages . He was motivated to write the study because judicial practitioners require legal discussions free from rigid imitation (taqlid) that rely on direct evidence, and because penal laws serve to protect essential necessities: religion through the penalty for apostasy, lineage through that for unlawful intercourse, intellect through that for intoxication, honor through that for slander, and property through that for theft .
Structure and Method
The work follows two main analytical tracks (maslak):
- Systematic presentation: Arranging Ibn al-Qayyim's statements according to standard legal chapter divisions . It opens with an overarching section on prescribed punishments (Kitab al-Hudud), followed by chapters on unlawful sexual intercourse (Bab Hadd al-Zina), slanderous accusation (Bab Hadd al-Qadhf), drunkenness (Bab Hadd al-Sukr), theft (Bab Hadd al-Sariqa), the apostate (Bab Hukm al-Murtadd), and discretionary punishment (Bab al-Tazir) . Abu Zayd explicitly omitted the chapters on banditry (hiraba) and rebels (bughah) because he found no specific treatments of them in Ibn al-Qayyim's writings .
- Comparative analysis: Juxtaposing Ibn al-Qayyim's views against the positions of the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali schools of law, highlighting where his positions converged with them or remained unique, and subsequently determining the preferred ruling (tarjih) supported by textual evidence .
The text concludes with analytical indices detailing primary sources, subjects, Quranic verses, hadiths, and biographical entries .
Publication History
The book was first printed in 1403 AH (1983 CE) jointly by al-Maktab al-Islami and Maktabat al-Rushd . A second single-volume edition was published in 1415 AH (1994 CE) by Dar al-Asima in Riyadh .
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