Some women have appeared in this age who attack the verses; is it permissible for an individual to carry out the hudud (fixed Qur'anic punishments) against them?

The questioner : Regarding this, O Shaykh, some women have appeared in this age who speak about the verses of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) and accuse them of injustice, and some have even dared to attack the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Perhaps you have heard, O Shaykh, about one of these women who spoke about the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and rejected them. She said about the meaning of the statement of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): and our Lord commanded them to establish prayer, to the end of the verse. She said: This is injustice. And she said about the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding that there is no difference of opinion on this, that whoever says this is sick. She insulted the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in this age in which the rule of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) has vanished regarding the rulers. Is it permissible for an individual Muslim to take revenge on this woman and stop her at her limit to be a lesson for those who take heed? Should he kill her or do something to her that serves as a lesson?

The Shaykh : No, it is a problem—may Allah have mercy on him, he laughs—just stick to the initial point.

The questioner : Meaning: make her a lesson. Meaning: disfigure her.

The Shaykh : Understood, my master. If this is the crux of the question, as they say, then my answer to this is well known and constant: carrying out the hudud (fixed Qur'anic punishments) is not for individuals, because many and very many harms follow from it, especially in this time you mentioned. The man who wants to carry out the hadd (fixed punishment) on this woman, killing her on the assumption that she is an apostate, for example, or that he harms her somewhat as a disciplinary measure—she will not take it as discipline; she will take it as an aggression against her. Then she must have relatives, a father, a brother, or the like, and they will in turn commit aggression against the one who aggressed against her, and so the aggression chains from one stage to another, and corruption increases on earth. This is not the intent of the legislation of the hudud (fixed Qur'anic punishments). If the intent of your question is only this, then the answer is: I have not heard of it. It is not permissible to take revenge on her, nor is it permissible to harm her in any type of harm or torture her in any type of torture, except by the ruler who rules with what Allah has revealed. And of course, you limited it to the fact that there is no one ruling with what Allah has revealed, so then an individual from the individuals rules by it. This is, in reality, one of the mistakes of some of those who think among the Islamic groups, that some individuals take upon themselves the carrying out of the hudud (fixed Qur'anic punishments). This is absolutely not permissible, except in a society where the conditions for carrying out the hudud (fixed Qur'anic punishments) are prepared, in which the statement of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) is realized: But when an individual wants to impose himself as a ruler over others, in addition to the harms that may follow from this ruling or execution, which I mentioned earlier, he may fall into violating the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) from another angle. For example, this woman—I am imagining, and I have not read her words or had anything of them conveyed to me, but I imagine that many, and very many, like her are in the Muslim society. They do not know the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); they do not distinguish the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) from the hadiths of people. So they or they hear that these Muslims who are strict or pretentious, in their opinion, the extremists, say: Women are deficient in intellect and religion. They think this is their opinion, a ruling, for example, from the rulings. But they do not know that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) truly said this. Even if I assume something broader than that, so that the Muslim does not fall into legal blame, even if she or someone else heard that it is a hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), like the sheikhs say, but these sheikhs are incompetent sheikhs, of course, in her opinion. They have no awareness, they have no culture, the bottom line is that they are a group of reactionaries who babble about what they do not know, from this much talk. That is: it is not established in her mind that this is truly a hadith said by the Prophet of Islam. Therefore, this woman and those like her, if there is a Muslim ruler—I assume that I am this Muslim ruler, God forbid—what is your opinion?

The questioner : May Allah will it, you will be the Muslim ruler who rules over the Muslims.

The Shaykh : Over these Muslims?

The questioner : Over Muslims like us.

The Shaykh : The first one ruled over, what is he?—he laughsThe Shaykh : May Allah have mercy on him. The point is: assume that a ruler from the rulers of the Muslims is upon the Book and the Sunnah. He does not come to this woman and hold her accountable and take her by the tail, but he holds her by the head, by her creed. He asks her: Are you a Muslim? Yes, praise be to Allah, I am a Muslim. Do you believe in Allah and His Messenger? Yes, indeed. With certainty? Yes, indeed. What is your opinion if a hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is established with you and it contradicts your desire or your intellect, your culture, this in which you see yourself, and so on? What is your position regarding this hadith, or before the hadith, as in this case?The Shaykh : The supposed ruler makes a mistake. He comes to her with a verse, like what you said about that verse You are saying: You believe in Allah and His Messenger, in the Book and the Sunnah. Yes, indeed. Well, do you know that this is a verse in the Noble Qur'an? No, by Allah, I do not know. Then it is not permissible to say of her: She is an apostate from her religion, because she does not know that this is from her religion. This is ignorance. So the one who appointed himself as an individual ruler, because the question was about this, wanting to take revenge on her, wanting to discipline her, and so on, but he did not understand whether she is doing this out of knowledge and heresy, or out of ignorance? And I truly do not blame many of the young men and young women, because they hear things that are from Islam, and Islam is innocent of them, as they say: the innocence of the wolf from the blood of the son of Jacob. And you share this opinion with me?

The questioner: Certainly.

The Shaykh : Yes, and I remember when I was in Damascus and giving organized weekly lessons there, an occasion would come where we would talk about some of the bid'ah (religious innovation) and some of the despicable Sufis, their opinions and ideas. There was the owner of the house, may Allah reward him with good, who had closed the house so that it could be built and divided into rooms, and he made these rooms open into each other so that the gathering could hear the gathering, everyone saying what he says.The Shaykh : So he stopped that temporarily, but he is intelligent and smart, even though he is almost illiterate. He stands there and says: O our brothers, in the Syrian dialect, O our brothers, by Allah, do not blame these communists if they disbelieve in Islam, because in reality they hear words from the sheikhs saying: If this is Islam, then we are innocent of this Islam. They see manifestations from some of the sheikhs that disgust the souls. We have a custom, some people, especially in the Great Mosque in Damascus, which is the Mosque of the Umayyads, in the houses, relieving themselves there. There are two rows and a passage between the rows. You find some of the sheikhs coming out of relieving themselves, and he is wearing what do they call it?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, what do they call it?

The questioner : A zipper.

The Shaykh : No, by Allah, glory be to Allah! An open shirt.

The questioner : An abaya.

The Shaykh : They call it an open abaya, one over the other. What does it amount to? He comes out of the toilet, puts his hand and covers, and walks, dragging his feet, and shakes this for what? In order to clear it— he laughsThe Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him) — what is he holding? It is a farce, a farce beyond description. Is this Islam? I do not want this Islam. And they hear fairy tales and nonsense, and so on. Therefore he says: Do not hold these communist people accountable when they say: "Religion is the opium of the people." Do not hold the communists accountable. Who is this? Our illiterate companion says: Do not hold the communists accountable when they say: "Religion is the opium of the people," because the truth is that these things they hear are not from Islam, and it is their right to say that religion is the opium of the people. Because they do not understand the correct Islam. So now, what do we assume about this woman? I see doctors and specialists in the Shari'ah who do not understand Islam. Today, a woman asked me at the university, and she is also studying at the university. A doctor discussed with her the topic of Allah's rising above the Throne. He said: This doctor is wrong; Allah is everywhere.

The questioner: ... May Allah guide him.

The Shaykh: Allah is everywhere. By Allah, this is a belief that a disbeliever would not accept. So I entered into an experience. Once I was departing from Aleppo to Idlib, and from Idlib to Latakia in the west, there in Syria. With me was one of our brothers named Abd al-Rahman Shalabi. We were heading to Latakia from Idlib. Do you know the Europeans? They have a way of begging for a ride in a car for free. What do they do?

The questioner: ... They call it "stop."

The Shaykh: He stops on the road begging, but in a modern way. And I was driving my car, and my companion was beside me. Of course, we were speeding a bit, or speeding a lot, I don't remember now. (laughs)The Shaykh- The important thing is, after we had covered some distance, we noticed a person raising what? His thumb. We stopped like this and looked in the mirror. Indeed, I said: What do you think, Abd al-Rahman? Let's take him with us; the car is empty.

The questioner: Perhaps he will support your speed.

The Shaykh: How? The point is, we turned back, by Allah. And lo, the man was American, and his wife was standing at the kiosk, but not standing openly on the side. When we stopped the car, he gestured to her. So I said to our brother Abd al-Rahman: Now we will cut the road with them, after we found out who they are? Foreigners. The point: They got in, and we went. My companion was babbling in English, as for me, I do not babble it. I was content with the "panetti" (nonsense). I started saying to him: Ask him about his religion as an introduction. We arrived. What? What is your belief in Allah the Mighty and Majestic? He said: He is everywhere. It is the doctor's belief. It is strange that a disbeliever American's belief is not strange. So I said to my companion: Tell him this, tell him this, he translates like this, like this. When we reached the crux of the matter, he said: By Allah, this is the reasonable one. It is reasonable that Allah is above all creation, because He was, and there was no creation, no time, and no place. How can it be said: That Allah is everywhere? The Muslim doctors do not understand this belief yet, and they teach it to the students, and in al-Azhar al-Sharif, and the Azhari comes and discusses with you and misleads you on top of this, because you say: So many people, men and even more so women, are held accountable. They have denied legal truths. Therefore, my school of thought, and I have said this repeatedly, near and far, is that we should not rush to pronounce the word of disbelief on anyone who testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, except after questioning and interrogation. If it becomes clear that he means what he says, then here he is given the choice to repent. If he repents, otherwise he is killed. By whom? By the Muslim ruler. We ask Allah to bring him to us.

The questioner: The newspaper says: They asked her in the court to retract her statement after they explained the matter to her. They explained to her that she was wrong and had spoken, and so on. So retract your statement, and we will not hold a trial. Write in the newspaper that I was wrong, and so on. She said: I am determined on what I am saying, and do what you want. So the court was held. Now, what I want to say is: If she said this as a belief, and she proved that she believes in what she says, and a Muslim volunteers to kill her, be patient.

The Shaykh : Be patient.

The questioner: And he volunteers himself, even to surrender himself, saying: I am the one who killed this woman, so that it will be a lesson for others. And he seeks refuge in a hadith, which may be weak or authentic, I do not know. It is that one of the noble Companions had a wife who had insulted the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So he placed his dagger on her chest and leaned on her, and she died. When that was reported to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he said: "She insulted you, O Messenger of Allah." So what is the ruling?

The Shaykh: This is an authentic hadith.

The questioner : Praise be to Allah.

The Shaykh: But the one who applies this ruling in this time would be, in my opinion, an animal. Why? Do you know why? Because does she have sisters or not?

The questioner: The girl.

The Shaykh: I mean sisters, meaning similar ones.

The questioner: By Allah, they are many in this time.

The Shaykh: So this animal, every time he hears one like her, he wants to kill her.

The questioner: Only this one became famous in his opinion, became famous openly.

The Shaykh: This is not permissible, my brother. It is not permissible. As long as the whole society is corrupt, we return to the original educational methodology. Is education to be done by using force? You today, and I, and all Muslims are weak. If you want to correct the crookedness present in the society, you will be destroyed, and those who take refuge in you will be destroyed, and the call will be destroyed in the end. Therefore, we say...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: It will lead to accountability.
Al-Halabi: Regarding the issue of this woman today in the newspaper, Shaykh, she is writing an article.

The Shaykh: It is herself.
Al-Halabi: It is herself, so she is apologizing, a kind of hidden apology, meaning she did not say: I retracted and I said this.

The questioner: And she does not say it, the Shaykhs do not say it.
Al-Halabi: Yes, yes, by Allah, that is correct, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes.
Al-Halabi: What do you say? You say: These people are doubting my Islam and my faith. And you say: These things they said are pure fabrication. And they said in the statement that it contradicts the words of Allah and the words of His Messenger. And I did not ask for anything except what is in the Qur'an and in the hadith. And this is my statement, meaning: