In Islamic Law, tazir (ta'zeer or ta'zir, ) lit. scolding; refers to punishment for offenses at the discretion of the judge (Qadi) or ruler of the state. It is one of three major types of punishments or sanctions under Islamic law, Sharia — hadd, qisas / diyya and ta'zir. Contrary to the lightness of naming, tazir are discretionary punishments that can range from a harsh warning from the judge to corporal punishment such as flogging, imprisonment and exile not specified in the Qur'an nor the hadiths, or is not punishable under either qisas or hudud. Terminologically, the definition of hudud refers to punishments for actions that exceed divinely determined limits, fixed in the Qur'an or hadiths ) while qisas refers to the equal response that can be used in cases of bodily harm such as killings and organ losses, and diyya refers to variable compensation payments for situations where retaliation is not possible according to sharia rulings in these situations. Which crime falls into which category may vary depending on understanding. For example, according to some verses and hadiths, those who avoided alms and prayers were the ones to be fought against, ) and according to some understandings, they were people who had abandoned religion - theologians debated whether worship was a part of faith - and according to classical fiqh sects, they were people who should be killed. However, even if today's dominant understanding defines the abandonment of worship as sinfulness, does not approve of giving worldly punishment for them. However, in sharia governments, their testimony against a devout Muslim may not be accepted, they may be humiliated and barred from certain positions because of this tag.

Overview

The classical Islamic legal tradition did not have a separate category for criminal law as does modern law. The classical Islamic jurisprudence typically divided the subject matter of law into four "quarters", that is rituals, sales, marriage, and injuries. In modern usage, Islamic criminal law has been extracted and collated from that classical Islamic jurisprudence literature into three categories of rules:

Scripture

The word tazir is not used in the Quran or the Hadith, in the sense that modern Islamic criminal law uses it. However, in several verses of the Quran, crimes are identified, punishment of the accused indicated, but no specific punishment is described. These instances led early Islamic scholars to interpret the Quran as requiring discretionary punishment of certain offenses, namely Tazir. Example specific verses from the Quran that support taazir are,

Examples of Tazir offenses

Tazir offenses are broadly grouped into two sub-categories in Islamic literature. 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. 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. 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: Numerous other offenses are included in Tazir category.

Tazir punishments

Tazir punishments were common in Sharia courts. Punishments vary with the nature of crime and include a prison term, flogging, a fine, banishment, and seizure of property. The sixteenth-century Egyptian jurist Ibn Nujaym said that taʿzīr could consist of lashing, slapping, rubbing the ears, a stern telling-off, disparagement short of slander, or an angry look from the judge. Execution is allowed in cases such as practices which split the Muslim community, espionage on behalf of an enemy of the Muslim state. All four schools of fiqh (Madhhab), namely Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali, permit the death penalty at the discretion of the state or Qadi, for certain Tazir offenses if it is proven by at two least witnesses or a self confession. Brunei introduced Tazir into its Syariah Penal Code Order effective 2014. Tazir crimes in Brunei now include offenses such as failing to perform Friday prayers by anyone above 15 years old, any Muslim disrespecting the month of Ramadan, and khalwat (dating or any form of close proximity between unrelated members of opposite sex). Iran introduced Tazir into its legal code after the 1979 Revolution, naming the section as Qanon-e Tazir. These Tazir laws allow prosecution of offenses such as illicit kissing, failing to wear proper head dress such as hejab, and making critical statements against judges and members of the Council of Guardians.