Feasibility of Imposing Criminal Reactions toward Unintentional Behaviors in Criminal Jurisprudence

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Somayeh Soleimani ¹

Shahram Ebrahimi ²

Mohammad hadi Sadeghi ²

Fazlollah Forughi ²

¹ PhD Graduate, Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

² Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

10.22067/jfiqh.2025.89936.1838

Abstract

The present research serves as an introduction to the criminal explanation of behaviors and answers the need for a Shari'a-based justification for the criminal characterization of unintentional behaviors. The study seeks to answer whether unintentional behaviors can be subject to criminal reaction within Islamic jurisprudence. The findings, conducted via descriptive-analytical method, indicate that in criminal jurisprudence, any behavior in which the emergence of mischief (mafsadah) and harm żarar) is probable would be prohibited due to aggression (ʿadvān). This is because punishment (in the strict sense) and criminal reaction are contingent upon establishing agent-based reprehensibility. Negligence (taqṣīr) in unintentional behaviors is the characterization of a potentially harmful behavior, which often occurs consciously and can be attributed to the agent-based reprehensibility. Moreover, due to the centrality of the act in imposing a criminal reaction, the broad and non-specifiable entailments of the rational rule of the obligation of preventing probable harm are derived from certain verses and traditions. Committing aggressive behaviors is also considered a sin (maʿṣiyat) and the degree of certainty regarding the harmful effects of a behavior serves as a factor for prohibiting such behaviors based on precaution and prevention. According to certain verses of the Holy Qur’an, although an error may not be subject to accountability (muʾākhaza) due to its lack of intent, if it possesses a volitional origin and if precaution is predominantly abandoned, accountability becomes possible. Similarly, from the perspective of interpreters, seeking forgiveness in erroneous behaviors presupposes that those behaviors are indeed subject to accountability.

Keywords

negligence

prevention of probable harm

aggression (ʿadvan)

sin

accountability

Subjects

• Criminal jurisprudence

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