The hand is to be cut off for a quarter of a dinar or more

Arabic text

عَنْ عَائِشَةَ أُمِّ المؤْمنينَ رَضيَ اللهُ عنها قَالَت: قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: «تُقْطَعُ اليَدُ فِي رُبُعِ دِينَارٍ فَصَاعِدًا».

Translation

‘Ā’ishah, Mother of the Believers, (may Allah be pleased with her) reported: The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The hand is to be cut off for a quarter of a dinar or more."

Explanation

The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) clarified that the hand of a thief should be cut off for stealing a quarter of a dinar of gold, or any amount greater than that, which is equivalent to the value of 1.06 grams of gold.

Benefits

• Theft is of the major sins.
• Allah Almighty has determined the thief's punishment, which is cutting off his hand, as He says: {As for the thief, male or female, amputate their hands.} [Surat al-Mā’idah: 38] The Sunnah has clarified the conditions of such amputation.
• The word "hand" in the Hadīth refers to cutting off the palm from the joint between it and the forearm.
• One of the rationales behind cutting off a thief's hand is to protect people's property and deter other transgressors.
• A dinar is a Mithqāl (unit of weight) of gold, currently equivalent to 4.25 grams of 24-karat gold; thus, a quarter of a dinar is equal to a little over a gram.

Topics

• Jurisprudence and Juristic Principles
• Prescribed Punishments
• Prescribed Punishment for Theft