Death penalty upon murderers is the pinnacle of justice: Sheikh Shaheem
-Ruler cannot grant clemency without the permission of the heirs

Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed has said that the death penalty upon the one murderer which is prescribed in the Islamic Shariah is the pinnacle of justice.

Sheikh Shaheem said this in the Friday sermon. The sermon which was given in all the Friday mosques of the country stated that the punishments and the principle of qisas – retribution are prescribed in the Islamic Shariah as a manifestation of divine justice. Sheikh Shaheem stressed that justice is the supreme purpose of the Shariah and therefore the implementation of the principles of qisas is the pinnacle of justice.

Sheikh Shaheem noted that the nation is now in peril and the people are living in fear. “Killing and violence is almost rampant in the society,” he said.

“Allah has stated that ‘in retribution (qisas) lies the source of life for you’,” he reminded that the death penalty upon murderers as a retribution is prescribed in the Quran.

He said that the right of retribution belongs to individuals, not society or the state; this simple shift in responsibility results in a profound and far reaching change in the whole system of implementing justice. He added the state does not have to intervene every time two human beings are involved in a dispute and thus, instead of starting an irreversible process of trial and punishment, it leaves the ground open for settlement between individuals, without interference by impersonal bureaucratic machinery, though under no circumstances can the individual take the law into his own hands.

Sheikh Shaheem said that heir of the murdered person in their turn may forgo their right to retribution by forgiving, or may agree to accept a monetary or token recompense instead. He said that Islam, in fact, highly recommends the act of forgiving thus, under qisas punishment is avoidable without burdening the executive or judiciary with the dilemma of whether to exercise mercy. 

Furthermore, Sheikh noted that the one who ridicule and mock the divinely prescribed punishment are guilty of apostasy and hypocrisy.