Severed Hand of the Thief Hung Around His Neck
✍ Written by: Imran Ayub Lahori
❀ The Practice of Hanging the Severed Hand
➊ Hazrat Faḍālah bin ʿUbayd (رضي الله عنه) reported:
A thief was brought to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and his hand was cut off:
ثم أمر بها فعلقت فى عنقه
"Then, by the command of the Prophet (ﷺ), the severed hand was hung around his neck."
[Ḍaʿīf: Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl: 2432; Abū Dāwūd: 4411, Kitāb al-Ḥudūd, Bāb fī Taʿlīq Yad al-Sāriq fī ʿUnuqih; Tirmidhī: 1447; Nasāʾī: 8/92; Ibn Mājah: 2587; Aḥmad: 6/19]
The wisdom mentioned behind this practice is so that people may take lesson and deterrence from it.
[Ḥujjatullāh al-Bālighah: 2/163; Nayl al-Awṭār: 4/589]
➋ It is also narrated that Hazrat ʿAlī (رضي الله عنه) cut off the hand of a thief, and as people passed by, his severed hand was hanging around his neck.
[Bayhaqī: 8/275; Nayl al-Awṭār: 4/589]
