Sparing the Rod

For some weeks now I have been pondering to write something about the wisdom in corporal punishment (this goes right up there with making a pamphlet titled “The Necessity of Slavery”). Post-”Enlightenment” Europe in the interest of more humane means of punishing and killing people has come a long way. First on the list was developing the guillotine, and personally I would much rather see that back in place rather than having people be decapitated by unwieldy swords in public executions (these days it would also be possible to construct a more mechanised version, but I would think something would be lost in the certain rustic, manual charm and make it less environmentally friendly). It should even be recommended that smaller device could be developed for lopping off arms and legs that would be easily sanitised between uses. Of course the Spaniards also came up with the garrote, a fine and efficient instrument that makes for bloodless work and leaves the body intact. But what I am more concerned with reviving are the whips, cat o’ nine tails, all those object of flagellation and flogging that are replaced by prison sentences. Now I am sure that many readers up to this point assume that I am constructing a wry joke, that I couldn’t possibly be serious. Well, reader, I am.

This essay is not meant to give an overview of Islamic jurisprudence’s penal code.  Personally I have not studied all of the particulars of the subject, but more should be said for the examples of mercy and leniancy in the prophetic example of its application than is often given.  I also acknowledge there are intense abuses of this penal code (that is, where it is even some vague pretense of being in practice), but that does not negate my disgust at anti-Muslim rants centred on rejecting Shariah in Western Europe/North America.  No one familiar with the punishments inflicted upon the great Imams of Islam, Abu Hanifah, Malik, Ahmad, &c; can say that the penal system has always been fairly and purposefully applied, but to those golem-like multitudes who think it nothing but stone-age savagery: not only is the Shariah so much broader than your own pathetic understanding, but it is also already in practice, already present in your societies: every Muslim who prays, marries, fasts, gives charity, is as a matter of definition, acting out the mandate of Shariah (where those actions are performed according to the requirements stipulated by the rulings of Islam’s legal eagles, the fuqaha, may Allah benefit us through them and make their brilliance manifest to people).

Western society seems to be uncomfortable with two things: responsibility & punishment. Much could be said on the subject alone of how Westernised people squirm at the thought that people should be physically punishment (not just against criminals but eve in the disciplining of children) — is it that we do not want to be reminded of human frailty and mortality? Or are we so lacking in personal mortality that we feel unsure if harming the deserving is truly justified. Would that this emasculated sensibility have kept more countries from pointless wars. Then on the responsibility side, we often hate to see that our actions have any consequence attached to them: we trash our refuse into impenetrable bags to magically disappear in the morning; we never actually see the bewildering scale of our waste unless we pass by landfills and we can satisfaction in calling other countries dirty because they have trash in their streets (Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran was pitiful as a film — I have to read the novel which appears to have better merits — in representing a “Sufi” who sells alcohol and condones prostitution but it did have one semblance of truth: that a country’s wealth can be measured by how it manages its garbage).

Well, why I am talking about garbage in relation to whipping rogues? Well the way we deal with our garbage is very much alike to how we deal with our criminals. Why have a visual reminder of consequence interrupt our fun, when we can just put it all in a plastic suit and ship it away — out of sight, out of mind. But let us really examine the choice we have here, and ponder which of the options are truly humane: that we give someone a few lashes, maybe cut off a hand in an extreme case (I doubt there are many highwaymen left so we do not have to worry much about cutting off feet too) — or do we put someone in a cage, a social pit, a psychological Hell, for several years only to unleash into the same society that likely influenced them to a life of crime (only now without provision, without employment, and with a permanent stigmata)? Prisons are an enormous drain on state funds, places of daily abuse (most famously rapes), and have far-reaching social effects: The Economist published an essay not too long ago in its Lexington column (“Sex and the single black woman“) that analysed how the high numbers of men from ethnic minorities lead women to be competitive for the fewer goods outside bars — they feel more pressured to hand out physically incentives to stay in the game, hence fewer wind up marrying and more babies are born out of wedlock to dysfunctional relationships [insert argument for polygamy].

People love to decry how thugs on MTV are ruining society, but even those discussions have to admit that part of the problem is the culture that created and spread the idea of a glorified rogue that gets what he wants and stands in cool contempt against the world with some stupid arm gesture, a culture that also sees prison as a rite of passage. Considering how much money the industry makes, the music isn’t going to go away anytime soon (no matter how distasteful it is). But what more effective way to reverse that culture and society than to replace prison sentences with corporal punishments. I have yet to see any poem or song that glories being whipped for a crime. No one would ever think that being whipped is anything but shameful. No one would ever see missing a hand as cool (unless accompanied with an eye-patch, salty accent, and a pirate costume). Plus it keeps more people available to the labour market, frees up state budgets, and it’s performable in a short amount of time. Who would argue that some people truly need a slap in the face to get over how tough they think they are and to actually be useful to society rather than a social problem and public nuisance?  As Rufaidah al-Zeer so rightly and eloquently put it, the beauty of corporal punishment is that the penalty “is as much about rectifying the individual as it is about rectifying society”.

God’s peace and blessings upon Muhammad and upon all the Prophets and Messengers who came to correct delinquency and perfect character, peace and blessings upon them beyond measurability in every moment and time.

والسلام

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