Hirabah

Hirabah is a hudud offense under Islamic law comprising highway robbery and banditry, treated by modern scholarship as the closest classical equivalent to terrorism, distinguished from ordinary theft by the added element of violence or intimidation against travelers or against society at large. Classical jurists described it as banditry in open country that destabilizes civil order, covering acts such as robbery on the road, assassination, arson, and poisoning water supplies, whether committed alone or with accomplices. It is classified as one of the few capital hudud crimes, with Quranic verse 5:33 specifying a range of punishments a ruler may impose, including execution, crucifixion, amputation of a hand and foot from opposite sides, or exile.