Dear Br. A:Assalamu Alikum wa Rahmatu Allah.. Concerning your question on the topic of capital punishment in Islam, dated 08-27-1996, the answer is the following: Yes, capital punishment is allowed within the Islamic Law, Allah (S.W.T.) says in the Quran: '...and kill not anyone whom Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause....' (Surah 6. Al-An'am, Ayah 151, & Surah 17. Al-Isra', Ayah 33.) The Prophet (S) explained in his sayings three types of cases where taking life becomes permissible under Islamic Law, one of which is premeditated murder.
As to the second part of your question, Allah (S.W.T.) gave the authority and right to the heir(s) of the victim to demand equal punishment be applied on the killer. Allah Says:'...And whoever is killed (intentionally with hostility and oppression), We have given his heir the authority (to demand equal punishment)....' (Surah 17. Al-Isra', Ayah 33.)
With regards to the third part of your question, 'What purpose does the capital punishment solve in the grand design?' The answer that Allah (S.W.T.), who created us and everything else, says in the Quran: ' And there is (a saving of) life for you in Al-Qisas (the law of equality in punishment), O' possessors of sound minds...), (Surah 2. Al-Baqarah, Ayah 179.) The saving of life that Allah (S.W.T.) refers to in the above Ayah can be seen in several ways:
1) Without serving justice to the family of the victim, people could take matters into their own hands, thus a never ending retaliation by killing could take place as had happened in past history in many nations.
2) This type of justice is applied only by the government not you and I, to establish law & order. 3) This type of punishment surely deters people from killing because simply the killer will not be there to commit another murder. Also consider what is the alternative? If you say imprisonment, let me point out to you that sometimes imprisonment is not a suitable/sufficient punishment. I have personally visited some of the jails, and inmates told me that they were repeat offenders because the system is not strong enough to stop them from doing it again and again. In fact prision can also be a training camp for criminals to be even more dangerous to the socity, since they can exchange information on how they can commit crimes in more efficint ways. The punishment of mprisonment creates several other problems also. For e.g. first of all the prisioner live at the expense of the public (the goverment has to use much of the tax money for the building and running of the prisons. It could otherwise be used to help the poor/needy population and/or etc.).
To end my answer to your good question, I think the best way to determine if capital punishment works or not is to look at statistics from different countries to see how much lower are murder rates due to applying the capital punishment. Thank you for asking, ... Assalamu Alikum.. (Source: IslamiCity) Classified in Capital Punishment > Is it allowed for a Human to take another Human’s Life
