Sharia law, capital punishment, and forgiveness

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 1:56 pm by Morgan Guyton

Sharia law, capital punishment, and forgiveness 2014-07-17T13:56:16-05:00 Morgan Guyton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Sharia law. The name conjures up images of barbaric practices like stoning women for adultery or chopping off the hands of thieves. Lawmakers in the US have passed paranoid resolutions against Sharia law ever being used in their states. But a recent story from Iran about a mother who forgave her son’s killer suggests that Sharia law may have something to teach us about capital punishment.

In the West, our understanding of justice is strictly retributive. Crime is turned into a matter of mathematics. A criminal accrues a debt to society with his/her crime and is punished accordingly. Criminal court cases are always defined as “the people” versus the plaintiff. There is no concern for restoring the well-being or dignity of the victim of the crime. Nor is there any interest in repairing the torn social fabric of a community where the crime has been committed. There are certainly initiatives undertaken to make crime-ridden communities healthy, but they are not understood to have anything to do with “justice.” Because in Western culture, justice can only be impersonal. As soon as it becomes personal, we presume that it has been corrupted with “bias.”

Our Western view of justice seems to be very informed by capitalism. In capitalism, the most important fundamental law is that default can never be allowed. Every debt must be measured and paid in order for the system to keep functioning. If banks started forgiving debts, then where would they stop? Analogously, our justice system could never allow for victims of crime to simply forgive criminals, because then the debt to society would remain unpaid and presumably other criminals would think they could get away with whatever they do (since people who comm1it crimes are watching the court system closely to calculate their actions, which are always perfectly rational and not at all the product of psychologically damaging things like substance abuse, rage, or the desperation of poverty).

Sharia law is apparently very different, in some cases. In the case that came to light last week, a man named Balal had gotten into a fight with another man named Abdollah when they were teenagers in 2007. Balal grabbed a knife and stabbed Abdollah, which killed him. Balal was arrested and sentenced to die. The way that this death sentence was to be carried out shows a completely different attitude about the victims of crime. Balal was put on a chair with a noose around his neck. The family of the victim were given absolute power over Balal’s life. They could kick out the chair and cause him to hang, or they could forgive him and remove the noose, which wouldn’t mean that he could go free but would commute his sentence to a prison term. The victim’s mother Maryam Hosseinzadeh gave a speech saying that she could not bring herself to forgive Balal, but then she changed her mind, slapped Balal in the face and declared him forgiven.

Imagine how different it would be if the families of murder victims had that kind of power in our justice system. We are insulated from the grave responsibility of ending another person’s life by the institutionalization of capital punishment. How many victim’s families would receive a greater healing from making the choice not to end the murderer’s life? I don’t know what it’s like to have a family member murdered. I cannot imagine that horror. I would probably consider myself religiously obligated to forgive the murderer if that responsibility were put on my shoulders, but I would resent that obligation. Could it be that Sharia law has something to teach us about capital punishment?

Previous Post

April 20, 2014

Resurrection and the gift of a wounded body

Next Post

April 22, 2014 Six ways that capitalism fails the church

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Ruth's first husband?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mahlon Elimelech Chilion Boaz