IMPRISONMENT

Arabic Sijn ( سجن‎ ), Ḥabs ( حـبـس‎ ). According to the Ḥanīfī school of jurisprudence, the person upon whom punishment or retaliation is claimed, must not be imprisoned until evidence be given, either by two people of unknown character (that is, of whom it is not known whether they be just or unjust), or by one just man who is known to the Qāẓī; because the imprisonment, in this case, is founded on suspicion, and suspicion cannot be confirmed but by the evidence of two men of unknown character, or of one just man. It is otherwise in imprisonment on account of property; because the defendant, in that instance, cannot be imprisoned but upon the evidence of two just men; for imprisonment on such an account is a grievous oppre ion, and, therefore, requires to be grounded on complete proof. In the Mabsūt̤, under the head of duties of the Qāẓī, it is mentioned that, according to the two disciples, the defendant, in a case of punishment for slander, or of retaliation, is not to be imprisoned on the evidence of one just man, because, as the exaction of bail is in such case (in their opinion) lawful, bail is, therefore to be taken from him. When a claimant establishes his right before the Qāẓī, and demands of him the imprisonment of his debtor, the Qāẓī must not precipitately comply, but must first order the debtor to render the right; after which, if he should attempt to delay, the Qāẓī may imprison him. If a defendant, after the decree of the Qāẓī against him, delay the payment in a case where the debt due was contracted for some equivalent (as in the case of goods purchased for a price, or of money, or of goods borrowed on promise of a return), the Qāẓī must immediately imprison him, because the property he received is a proof of his being po e ed of wealth. In the same manner, the Qāẓī must imprison a refractory defendant who has undertaken an obligation in virtue of some contract, such as marriage or bail, because his voluntary engagement in an obligation is an argument of his po e ion of wealth, since no one is supposed to undertake what he is not competent to fulfil. A husband may be imprisoned for the maintenance of his wife, because in withholding it he is guilty of oppre ion; but a father cannot be imprisoned for a debt due to his son, because imprisonment is a species of severity which a son has no right to be the cause of inflicting on his father; in the same manner as in cases of retaliation or punishment. If, however, a father withhold maintenance from an infant son, who has no property of his own, he must be imprisoned; because this tends to preserve the life of the child. ( Hidāyah , vol. ii.) ʿIMRĀN ( عمران‎ ). According to Muḥammadan writers the name of two different persons. The one the father of Moses and Aaron, and the other the father of the Virgin Mary. Christian writers imagine that the Qurʾān confounds Mary, the mother of Jesus, with Mary or Maryam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. The verses are as follows:— Sūrah iii. 30 : “Verily, above all human beings did God choose Adam and Noah, and the family of ʿImrān, the one the posterity of the other; and God heareth and knoweth. Remember when the wife of ʿImrān said, ‘O my Lord, I vow to Thee what is in my womb, for Thy special service.… And I have named her Mary, and I commend her and her offspring to Thy special protection.’ ” Sūrah lxvi. 12 : “And Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, ever virgin, and into whose womb We breathed Our spirit.” Sūrah xix. 29 : “ ‘O sister of Aaron! thy father was not a wicked man, nor unchaste thy mother.’ And she made a sign unto them pointing towards the babe.” Al-Baiẓāwī the commentator, says the ʿImrān first mentioned in Sūrah iii . is the father of Moses, and the second the father of Mary the Virgin. He attempts to explain the anachronism in Sūrah xix . by stating that (1) Mary is called the sister of Aaron by way of comparison; (2) or because she was of the Levitical race; (3) or, as some have said, there was a man of the name of Aaron, renowned either for piety or wickedne , who lived at the time, and she is said, by way of derision, to be like him! IMSĀK ( امساك‎ ). Lit . “Keeping back.” The word occurs only once in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 228 : “Divorce (may happen) twice; then, keep them in reason or let them go in kindne .” The word is used in theological works for being miserly in charity, and in giving in God’s service, in opposition to Infāq . INʿĀM ( انعام‎ ). A gift; a benefaction in general. A gift by a superior to an inferior. In India, the term is especially applied to grants of land held rent-free, and in hereditary and perpetual occupation; the tenure came in time to be qualified by the reservation of a portion of the a e able revenue, or by the exaction of all proceeds exceeding the intended value of the original a ignment; the term is also vaguely applied to grants of rent-free land without reference to perpetuity or any specified conditions. The grants are also distinguishable by their origin from the ruling authorities, or from the village communities, and are again distinguishable by peculiar reservations, or by their being applicable to different objects. Sanad-i-Inʿām is a grant emanating from the ruling power of the time of the grant, free from all Government exactions, in perpetuity, and validified by a Sanad, or official deed of grant; it usually comprises land included in the village area, but which is uncultivated, or has been abandoned; and it is subject to the village functionaries. Nisbat-i-Inʿām (from nisbah , “a portion”), are lands granted rent-free by the village out of its own lands; the lo or deduction thence accruing to the Government, a e ment being made good by the village community. (Wilson’s Glo ary of Indian Terms .)