The Correction of Children from the Viewpoints of Islamic Orders and Islamic Penal Code: A Comparative Study

As one of the dilemmas more prominent in our society in the recent years, is the issue of punishment of children, that in some case referred to as child abuse. From the Islamic point of view, upbringing children by methods such as encouragement, playing games, and paying respect are much more acceptable and effective. But, using punishment, which is interpreted as “Correction” and “Tazir”, in particular and special cases and by a definite mechanism, has been referred to as the last method of treatment. Therefore, correction and punishment of children in Islamic jurisprudential teachings have been recognized as one of parents’ rights and statutes acknowleged it. Therefore, under paragraph (d), article 158 - Islamic penal code, the parents’ measures in punishing their children within normal limits have been justified. But, the notion “normal limits” produces ambiguities for this legal right and based on constitutional principle 167, to remove the obscurity, one should refer to sharia references. The present research studied the jurisprudents’ standpoints on the nature of children correction. It also analyzed if correction of a child is discretionary or not. Moreover, it studies Islamic punishment code in this regard.