Mansus (Narrated) Ta’zirs and Their Shortcomings

Ta’zirs are punishments and penalties which are less severe than Hadd. There are 70 causes and 31 forms of Ta’zir mentioned in Islamic narrations and regarded as ‘Mnsus (narrated) Ta’zirs’. However, there are drawbacks to the legitimization of these causes and forms of Ta’zir: not all ‘narrated causes’ are necessary to be criminalized, nor the ‘narrated forms’ could get in the way of using other none-narrated, but reasonable, forms of punishment which are less severe than Hadd. The legitimate government of the Islamic society is in charge of Ta’zier; it could define its causes and forms, and as the common good calls, it could criminalize or decriminalize the narrated causes and it could penalize the criminals according to the narrated forms or otherwise. The legislator should not be restricted to narrated Ta’zirs. Regarding the criminalization and the penalties of crimes other than Hadd, he should rather drop the narrated Ta’zirs and turn to a more common-sense approach.