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Is the hadd punishment for theft to be carried out on a Muslim living in Muslim lands who is unaware of the unlawfulness of theft or the punishment of cutting for it?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Whoever was ignorant of the prohibition is not subject to Hadd (prescribed punishment), but whoever knows of the prohibition yet is ignorant of the punishment is subject to Hadd. This is based on the saying of Umar, Uthman, and Ali: "There is no Hadd except upon one who knows it." This is the view of the majority of scholars, due to the Hadith: "Avert the Hudud (plural of Hadd) with Shubuhat (doubts) as much as you can." The difference between the two is that ignorance of the Hadd while knowing of the prohibition is a type of ignorance regarding the consequence, for which one is held accountable.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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