Tazir (or another word with the 3-z-r root) is found three times in the Quran, where it is usually translated into English not as "scolding" but as "honor", or a similar word.[1]
“So that you may honor and support him (Muhammad).” Q.48:9[1]
“You shall believe in My messengers, and honor and support them.” Q.5:12[1]
“They believed in him, honored him, and supported him". Q.7:157[14]
Context in sharia
Rather than being divided into categories such as criminal law, civil law, family law, etc. as secular modern law is, classical Islamic legal jurisprudence[5] typically divides the subject matter of law into four "quarters" -- rituals, sales, marriage, and injuries.[4] In modern usage, Islamic criminal law has been extracted and collated from that classical Islamic jurisprudence literature into three categories of rules[4] mentioned above:
Hadd (literally "limit")[2] are rules and punishments that are stated in the Quran (and sometimes hadiths). Hadd crimes are relatively few:[15]theft, adultery, making unproven accusations of adultery, alcohol consumption, apostasy, and highway robbery or rebellion.[16][17] As crimes against God they cannot be forgiven/pardoned, but are also rarely implemented because the evidentiary standards are so difficult to meet.[18][19]
Qisas, (literally "retaliation in kind")[20] and diya, (دية) ("blood money") punishments are grouped together in Islamic jurisprudence.[21] Included in this category is homicide, for example, which Islamic law treats as a civil dispute between believers.[22] When qisas (Eye for an eye) is applied against the accused in the case of the murder of a Muslim, the victim's nearest relative or wali (ولي) (legal guardian) may take the life of the killer or have the court do it in his behalf.[23][24]
Tazir is the third category, and refers to offense mentioned in the Quran or the hadiths, but where neither the Quran nor the hadiths specify a punishment.[3][25] In tazir cases, the punishment is at the discretion of the state, the ruler, or a qadi (kadi),[12][26] or court acting on behalf of the ruler.[4] Tazir punishment is for actions which are considered sinful in Islam, undermine the Muslim community, or threaten public order during Islamic rule, but those that are not punishable as hadd or qisas crimes.[27] The legal restrictions on the exercise of that power are not specified in the Quran or hadiths, and vary.[16] The judge enjoys considerable leeway in deciding an appropriate form of punishment, and the punishment does not have to be consistent across the accused persons or over time.[4][16] The ruler or qadi also has the discretion to forgive tazir offenses.[16]
Tazir is defined by jurist Al-Nawawi as a punishment awarded for crimes which have no hadd nor kaffara, while Hanbali jurist Ibn Qudama defines tazir as a “legal punishment for a crime which has no hadd", and doesn't mention kaffara.[28][29] Hanafi scholar Imam al-Kasani defines tazir as a crime which has no specified punishment in sharia. It is a crime either against the right of God such as abandoning the prayer and fasting, or against the right of an individual such as harming a Muslim with a word or deed.[30]
Tazir offenses
Examples in scripture
The word tazir is not used in the Quran or the Hadith, in the sense that modern Islamic criminal law uses it.[31] However, in several verses of the Quran, crimes are identified, punishment of the accused indicated, but no specific punishment is described. Examples being:
And as for the two who are guilty of indecency from among you, give them both a punishment; then if they repent and amend, turn aside from them; surely Allah is Oft-returning (to mercy), the Merciful.
And (as for) those who dispute about Allah after that obedience has been rendered to Him, their plea is null with their Lord, and upon them is wrath, and for them is severe punishment.
These instances led early Islamic scholars to interpret the Quran as requiring discretionary punishment of certain offenses, namely tazir.[31]
Other examples
Tazir offenses are broadly grouped into two sub-categories in Islamic literature.[32] The first are those offenses that have the same nature but do not exactly meet the complete requirements of hudud crimes. Examples of such tazir offenses include thefts among relatives, or attempted but unsuccessful robbery, fornication that does not include penetration, and homosexual contacts such as kissing that does not result in fornication.[32][33] The second sub-category of tazir offenses relate to offenses committed by an individual that violate the behavior demanded in the Quran and the Hadiths. Examples of the second sub-category include false testimony, loaning money or any property to another person for interest in addition to principal, any acts that threaten or damage the public order or Muslim community or Islam.[32][33]
Tazir or discretionary punishment may also be used when offenses for which penalties are prescribed in law are attempted but not completed or where mitigating circumstances or weak evidence make the prescribed penalty unreasonable.[34]
The fourteenth century Islamic jurist Ibn Taymiyyah included any form of disobedience as a tazir offense, although his views were not accepted widely and listed several examples where there is no legal penalty in sharia:[35]
the man who kisses a boy or a woman unrelated to him by marriage or a very near kinship;[35]