Abstract

In Islamic resources, including the Holy Quran’s ĀYĀT and narrations, as well as ‎from the perspective of various religions, including Christianity and Judaism, ‎repentance enjoys a lofty position in such a way that it has been realized as the cause ‎of the human beings’ deliverance and felicity. Following the lead of the canonical ‎resources, the Islamic penal code of law, passed in 2013, posits repentance construct ‎as one of the regulations of the law on general punishments. The present study makes ‎use of a descriptive-analytical method to discuss about and investigate this legal ‎construct as one of the reasons for the abolishment of the punishments as viewed by ‎the jurisprudents and jurists. The study results indicated that all of the Islamic religions ‎consider repentance as the cause of the otherworldly chastisements’ abolishment. ‎However, there are discrepancies regarding the abolishment of earthly punishments ‎through repentance. In Imamiyyah Jurisprudents’ ideas, repentance dismisses the ‎criminal liabilities in the violations of the God’s rights and it abolishes the punishment ‎if it is done before the crime justification. The repentance after the justification of the ‎crime through presentation of proofs is not considered as the cause of punishment ‎abolishment by them. As for repentance after confession, it is believed that the judge is ‎free to either enforce the punishment or grant the amnesty demand. The individuals ‎realizing repentance as a cause abolishing the Hadd punishments are of the belief that ‎repentance originally causes the abolishment of Ta’azirāt. Repentance is amongst the ‎criminal law’s constructs in Islam that, in comparison to the other criminal law ‎schools, has been considered for the correction of the criminals and it causes the ‎abolishment of punishment in the majority of the cases but it is less frequently seen to ‎be employed in the judicial courts for the abolishment of the criminals’ punishments‎‎‎‎‎.