The Quranic - and Fiqhi Viewpoint on the Decree of the Punishment for Sab al-nabi (Abusing the Prophet)

The holy Prophet (PBUH) has a high status in Islam and it is incumbent on every one to honor him. For various purposes such as preventing any kind of chaos in Islamic society, recognizing the Prophet's high station and maintaining his true and legal status, Islam has administered punishments for blasphemers who speak in an offensive way about the Prophet. From the perspective of the Holy Quran and Islamic Fiqh, the punishment for those who speak in an offensive way about the holy Prophet of Islam are: futility of their deeds, their getting into the abyss of disbelief and apostasy, their entrance into the abyss of fighting against God and the Prophet corruption on earth and their being subject to Divine curse and torture. This paper examines the unfounded claim that punishing those who speak in an offensive way about the Prophet is against freedom of speech. Moreover, along with the question of the punishment administered for those who abuse the Prophet, some other issues are discussed in Islamic Fiqh such as the consensus of the Shite and Sunni Faqihs on killing the person who abuses the Prophet and the role of such components as secondary and governmental rules, belief, compulsion and the state of being purposeless, all of which indicate the unlawfulness of abusing the Prophet and are regarded as the measures which Islam takes to prevent it.