Caution in Issuing Verdicts of Death Penalty and Its Uses in Penal Law

Many Islamic rulings are to protect people's lives and this shows the importance of human being's life for God- the Exalted. Nevertheless, in Islamic countries, there are many death penalties. Are numerous death penalties, in the Islamic societies, based on teachings of Islam? To reply the above question, the Ijtihadi arguments should be inevitably studied and, based on study of the Book, Sunnah, and viewpoints of Muslim jurisprudents, the well-known rule of “caution in issuing verdict for death penalty” should be found according to which issuing each and every verdict or taking any action which may lead to death of someone should be based on firm proof or conclusive presumption and in other cases, such a verdict should be issued cautiously and free of any suspicion. And this shows that there are certain restrictions for issuing death penalty in Islam. Despite importance of this rule, however, it has not been independently discussed in legislation and execution of death penalty. On the other hand, after approval of the Islamic Penal Code (1392/2013) and other special penal laws as well as increase in cases of death penalty, it seems that the legislator has not paid attention to this rule as much as he should. Thus, while discussing its arguments, foundations and scope, the authors have mentioned cases of discrepancies between laws and this rule and attached much importance to it in legislation.