Parents’ Crimes against their Children: A Comparative Jurisprudent Study in Islamic Sharia د/ كوثر حمود محمد إسماعيل المخلافي

Abstract

This study aimed to highlight the issue of parents or grandparents’ attack on their children or grandchildren either by murder or assault. This act has become a widespread phenomenon in the Yemeni society. The theoretical inductive method was used to define major terminologies related to this issue. A comparison was made between the six Islamic Schools- Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi’s, Hanbalis, Zaidis and Thaheris- which all consider the crimes of willful murder, semi-willful murder, wrongful death, wrong doing and causing the wrong (negligence). For each crime, the school perspective was presented, focusing on the crime of willful murder by parents against their children. It was also indicated that there are two opinions. The first one represents the schools of Hanafis, Shafi’s, Hanbalis and Zaidis which states that a father or grandfather shall not be sentenced to death if they kill one son or grandson. They supported their stance by Hadiths, whose main theme is this: “a father shall not be sentenced to death for murdering his son”. The second opinion represents the schools of Malikis and Thaheris as well as Ibn al-Munthir of Shafi'i and al-Shawkani. This opinion states that if a father willfully kills his son he shall be treated as an unrelated person and be sentenced to death. This opinion was also supported by Qur’anic verses and Hadiths. The researcher then adopted the second opinion as it is strongly supported; and its proponents use Quranic verses and Hadiths with an absolute and general view. The researcher also presented the opinions of the six Islamic schools regarding other types of crimes by parents against their children, indicating points of agreement and disagreement. The study concluded with a set of recommendations and suggestions