How is the killing of the drunkard on the fourth offense considered a discretionary punishment (ta'zir) by the Shaykh al-Islam, while the flogging is a fixed punishment (hadd)?

The questioner : May Allah bless you, O Shaykh. As we mentioned yesterday, Shaykh al-Islam took the middle position: if people do not stop except by killing, then he kills on the fourth offense as a discretionary punishment (ta'zir). Yet he holds that flogging the drunkard is a fixed punishment (hadd). So how is the killing a discretionary punishment (ta'zir) while the flogging is a fixed punishment (hadd)?

The Shaykh : Based on the hadith, and it should be that if we say that flogging is a fixed punishment (hadd), we should say that even the killing is a fixed punishment (hadd). But because he qualified it with "if people do not stop except by it," he came to view it as a discretionary punishment (ta'zir).

The questioner : Now, if the killing in the hadith is a flogging, is it a hadd? And what is the ruling on the one who says that the flogging is a warning?

The Shaykh : I don't know. No, Shaykh al-Islam holds that the punishment for drinking intoxicants is a fixed punishment (hadd), and he holds that he is killed on the fourth offense if people do not stop except by it, from the perspective of discretionary punishment (ta'zir). And the scope of discretionary punishment (ta'zir) is broad.