Every person is assigned with responsibility. With this responsibility, he is accounted for every single deed or evil he commit. Hadith of prophet S.A.W “ Everyone of you is a shepherd ( leader ) and everyone of you is accounted. Man is the leader in his family and he is going to be accounted ; a woman is a leader in a context of her husband’s house and she is going to be accounted; a son is a leader in the context of property which left by his parent and he is going to be questioned; and the employee is a leader in the context of management of his employer and he is going to be questioned. In other words, the issue of criminal liability is only imposed when there is responsibility and accountability. To be responsible and accountable, a person must understand the nature of such responsibility and accountability.
In the issue of defense, it is important look back at the nature of human itself. Human is not perfect in nature. This is because human is not perfect in nature and thus they may commit something without they have control of it. This is where the issue of defense is important to be raised when a person committed an act/crime falling within the category of exception (defences). Otherwise, the court will convict the innocent rather than to punish the wrongdoer. Islam emphasizes the concept of justice. This is evidence in Al-Quran Surah al-Nahl verse 90. If such an offender committed an act/crime falling within the category of exception, he cannot be punished as he is considered committing no offence. Therefore, no punishment to be imposed on him.
In dealing with the issue of ignorance, a person is accountable for his offence when he knows or is aware of what he has committed. Otherwise, he is not accountable. This is consistent with the nature of mankind that is born without knowledge at all but gradually having ability to acquire knowledge. Basically, when he is in an Islamic state, he is presumed to know all the regulations of the county. Thus, he is not excused from the state of ignorance. In other words,” excuse of ignorance of Islamic Injunction is not acceptable in Islamic state”. However, there is exceptions on the general rule which only applies in two situations : 1) Relating to a person who lives in a seclusion area/jungle 2) A muslim convert who does not live in the Muslim society. If a person claims that he does not know the provision, he does not exempted from punishment as it is his responsibility to understand Islam as ordered by Allah S.w.t. This principle is also applies to a person not knowing the meaning of the provision.
In dealing with the issue of mistake, mistake is defines as an act which is done by an agent lawfully, resulted wrongfully. This may happen in many situations such as driving a car but unfortunately involve in accident, having intention to have intercourse with his wife but unfortunately with someone else and many more. Mistake is evidence in Surah al-Ahzab verse 5. According to jurists, the main elements of mistake are negligence and carelessness. When the accused raise the defense of mistake, he should be exempted from the offence as he has no responsibility and accountability on the act he did in mistake.
Similarly, when dealing with the defense of insanity and duress. The offender cannot be held liable as he has no responsibility and accountability for the act. In the case of insanity, there is hadith from prophet “Three persons are not under obligation ; a child before puberty, a person in sleep before he wakes up and insane person before his sanity is restored”.
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