What is the procedure when multiple prescribed punishments converge, none of which involve capital punishment?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Highway Robbers
Primary text
If several prescribed punishments that do not involve killing converge, all must be enforced without known disagreement. Enforcement begins with the lightest penalty progressing to the severest. For example, if a person commits drinking, fornication, and theft, the punishment for drinking is administered first, followed by the punishment for fornication, and finally the amputation for theft. If wealth was taken during *Muharaba*, the amputation for theft is subsumed into the amputation for *Muharaba* because the locus of the two amputations is the same, causing them to overlap, similar to two mandated killings. Al-Shafi'i agrees with this subsumption.
Supporting text
Abu Hanifa permits discretion to begin with either the punishment for fornication or the amputation for theft, as both are established by explicit Quranic texts, followed by the punishment for drinking. The preferred order is based on the lightness of the penalty, like the punishment for slander, which precedes others.