What is the ruling on one who commands another person to transgress a limit set by Allah, such as theft, and is the same hadd applied to him as to the thief?

The issue at hand concerns the jurisprudential rule which stipulates that if a direct perpetrator and a causal agent are involved in a crime or damage, the liability falls upon the direct perpetrator, unless the direct perpetrator is not legally responsible or is coerced, in which case the causal agent bears the responsibility. Thus, the commissioned person is the direct perpetrator of the crime, and the commanding person is the causal agent.

Scholars agree that the direct perpetrator bears the punishment if he is legally responsible, sane, adult, and not coerced.

However, if the direct perpetrator is not legally responsible (a minor or insane), then the punishment is borne by the causal agent (the commanding person) because in this case, the causal agent is considered like the direct perpetrator, and the direct perpetrator is like a tool in his hand.

As for a commissioned person who is legally responsible, sane, and adult, but coerced by the commanding person, scholars have differed on who bears the retribution (qisas). Some said that the qisas is on the direct perpetrator, not the commanding person. Others said both are killed. Some said the commanding person is killed and the commissioned person is punished. And some said the commissioned person is killed, not the commanding person.

If the crime does not pertain to qisas but rather to a fixed punishment (hadd) like theft, then the fact that the commissioned person is not legally responsible or is coerced does not transfer the hadd to the commanding person, because the hadd is only due on the direct perpetrator.

In cases where the commissioned person bears responsibility for the crime, it does not mean that the commanding person is exempt from all punishment. Rather, the ruler has the authority to punish him by discretionary punishment (ta'zir).

As for the afterlife, both the commanding person and the commissioned person share in the sin if the latter is legally responsible, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward like the rewards of those who follow him, without diminishing anything from their rewards. And whoever calls to misguidance will have a sin like the sins of those who follow him, without diminishing anything from their sins."