The ruling on a young thief before reaching puberty
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, if the thief is a minor, is the hadd (fixed punishment) carried out against him, or is he given a discretionary punishment? And is reaching puberty a requirement for carrying out the hadd?
Answer:
There is no doubt that punishments and obligations do not become obligatory except upon reaching puberty. So if a minor kills someone intentionally and aggressively, no retaliation is carried out against him because he is not accountable. His intentional act is treated as an error. Likewise, if he steals, his hand is not cut off because he is not accountable. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, if the thief is a minor, is the hadd (fixed punishment) carried out against him, or is he given a discretionary punishment? And is reaching puberty a requirement for carrying out the hadd?
Answer:
There is no doubt that punishments and obligations do not become obligatory except upon reaching puberty. So if a minor kills someone intentionally and aggressively, no retaliation is carried out against him because he is not accountable. His intentional act is treated as an error. Likewise, if he steals, his hand is not cut off because he is not accountable. Yes.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب حد القذف — islamhouse.com (58:06)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.