Criminal justice in the Quran
If a thief steals a thousand dollars from you, and they put him in prison, what do you get? If the thief has a wife and children, what is their fault to be deprived of their father and the bread earner of the family?
The Quran solves this problem, as well as the problems associated with the criminal justice systems prevalent in today's world. That is through equivalence:
O you who believe, equivalence is decreed upon you regarding those murdered: the free for the free, the slave for the slave and the female for the female. If one is pardoned anything by his brother, this must be followed by a righteous return that is paid to him with good will. This is an alleviation from your Lord and mercy. Then whoever aggresses after that shall have a painful punishment.
You have in equivalence a code of life, O you who possess intelligence so that you may be reverent. 2:178-179According to the Quranic criminal justice, the thief who is convicted of stealing a thousand dollars from you must repay you for what he stole, plus an additional amount for any other damage and inconvenience the theft may have caused you. If he is unable to repay that amount, he is to work for you until you are fully paid. At the same time, the thief's innocent wife and children are not deprived of their man, and the expensive prison system is eliminated. Figures show that the larger number of prisoners revert to re-offending upon their release, which indicates the useless nature of the prison system.
Contrary to common belief, the thief's hand shall not be cut off. A careful analysis of this subject in the Quran indicates that the thief's hand is to be marked, but not severed. Marking the hand of the thief is stated in 5:38. The Sura and verse numbers add up to 5+38 = 43.
Another verse in the Quran where we read about the hand being cut is 12:31. This is where we read that the women, invited to the banquet, admired Joseph so much that they "cut" their hands. Obviously, they did not sever their hands; no one can physically do that, let alone want to! The Sura and verse numbers add up to 12+31=43, the same total as in 5:38. This gives mathematical confirmation that the Quranic law calls for marking the hand of the thief, not severing it.
The punishment for proven adultery in the Quran is 100 lashes (24:2). However, the hadith writers fabricated a lie against the prophet which implies that he disregarded the punishment set by God and devised a different punishment, that being the stoning to death!
The Quranic punishment for adultery is to be administered in public so as to shame the offenders (24:2).
The law in the Quran is equivalence in all crimes:
The free for the free, the slave for the slave and the female for the female. 2:178
In dealing with murder, the Quran definitely discourages capital punishment (2:179). Due to human meanness and injustice, many people cannot even imagine what this Quranic law says. They refuse to accept the clear injunctions that strict equivalence must be observed - if a woman kills a man, or a man kills a woman, or a slave kills a free person, or a free person kills a slave, capital punishment cannot be applied.
The Quran prefers that the murderer compensate the victim's family. Killing the murderer does not bring the victim back, nor does the family of the victim benefit from executing the murderer. The compensation, however, must be sufficient to be a deterrent for others. The Quranic law makes the victim and/or the victim's family the judges for all crimes; they decide what the punishment shall be under the supervision of a person who knows the Quran.