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Safe custody (hirz) in theft

الحرز

Hirz (safe custody) is the place set up customarily to keep people's property, such as a house, a shop, a tent or a guarded person; its limits are fixed by custom. 1 Taking from safe custody is a condition of the hand's amputation for theft of ownable property, by the majority: the cut is not owed until the goods leave the whole of the custody, on the hadith that there is no cut for fruit still on the tree or for grazing animals in the mountain, and that the cut applies to what reaches the value of a shield. 2 There are two kinds: custody by place, such as houses and strongboxes, which is custody in itself; and custody by a guard, such as roads and mosques, where a nearby guard makes the place custody. 2 3 The jurists treat it under theft, and also under deposits and other contracts that carry liability. 3

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
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Crime and punishment

Summary

Hirz (safe custody) is the place set up customarily to keep people's property, such as a house, a shop, a tent or a guarded person; its limits are fixed by custom. 1 Taking from safe custody is a condition of the hand's amputation for theft of ownable property, by the majority: the cut is not owed until the goods leave the whole of the custody, on the hadith that there is no cut for fruit still on the tree or for grazing animals in the mountain, and that the cut applies to what reaches the value of a shield. 2 There are two kinds: custody by place, such as houses and strongboxes, which is custody in itself; and custody by a guard, such as roads and mosques, where a nearby guard makes the place custody. 2 3 The jurists treat it under theft, and also under deposits and other contracts that carry liability. 3

People and things also explored

Habs (imprisonment and detention)· Hadr (blood and value wasted: no retaliation, no compensation)· Harisa (a superficial wound)· Hashima (a head wound that breaks the bone: its compensation)· Cauterising the stump (hasm)· Hija' (satire and insult in verse: its rules)· Hirabah (highway robbery)· Guarding (hirasa)

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.6985
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.6986
  3. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.6987
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Safe custody (hirz) in theft”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/hirz-safe-custody/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Habs (imprisonment and detention)

In the technical sense habs is holding a person back, preventing him from acting for himself and going about his affairs. Jurists agree that it is lawful. Most treat it as a branch of discretionary punishment (ta'zir), used either as a penalty or to secure a suspect, and most set no upper limit on its length, leaving that to the judge. It may be open-ended or for life, and it ends with death, repentance or the pardon of the person wronged. Jurists also set rules for women, ambiguous and juvenile detainees, the prisoner's transactions, maintenance and oaths, the prohibited forms of discipline, and the jailer's qualities and the state's duty to oversee prisons.