Moharebeh

Moharebeh (also muharebeh, محاربة) refers to the crime of Hirabah, (a crime in Islamic law), or the perpetrator of Hirabah. Mohareb (محارب) has been translated by English language Iranian media as "enemy of God". In English-language media sources Moharebeh in Iran has been translated variously as "waging war against God," "war against God and the state," "enmity against God." It is a capital crime in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Origin

The original meanings of the root word haraba are to despoil someones wealth or property, and also fighting or committing sinful act. The Quran "refers to both meanings" in verses 2:279 and 5:33-34.

In keeping with the Quranic verse 5:33 quoted above, "most classical [Islamic] jurists" held that the penalty for moharebeh was crucifixion, cross-amputation (amputation of right hand and left foot) or being banished from the earth.

According to legal historian Sadakat Kadri the crimes of waging `war against God and His apostle` (Moharebeh) and spreading `disorder in the land` (Mofsed-e-filarz) were originally punished either by exile or some combination of double amputation, beheading, and crucifixion (what Kadri calls "islam's equivalent of the hanging, drawing and quartering that medieval Europeans inflicted on traitors"). This was the only capital penalty permitted rulers by the Quran (in the case of murder the killer's fate was in the hands of the victim's next of kin not the judge during the early years of Islam "when enemies of the faith and political rebels often looked frighteningly similar" the crime had broader application including apostasy from Islam but was "gradually narrowed" to apply only to "highway robbery in the open county."