38 Preface وَالسّارِقُ وَالسّارِقَةُ فَاقطَعوا أَيدِيَهُما جَزاءً بِما كَسَبا نَكالًا مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَزيزٌ حَكيمٌAhmed AliAs for the thief, whether man or woman, cut1 his hand as punishment from God for what he had done; and God is all mighty and all wise. Qata‘a menas to vut, but when used with different nouns it means different things idiomatically, for which see Raghib and Taj al-‘urus, such as to stop someone from speaking when used with lisan, tongue, or cut off the road when used with sabil, or become hopeless when used with rajul, man, etc. In 12:31, for instance, qatta‘na aidihunna means they wounded their hands or stopped peeling fruit, not cut off their hands. Hence here, in verse 38, it could also mean to stop their hands from stealing by adopting deterrent means, for the next verse, 39, speaks of repentance and forgiveness with overtones of rehabilitation, which would be lost if the hands were cut off completely or amputated. Similarly in verse 33 tuqatta‘a could mean restrain them by putting fetters on one hand and one leg. During the Umayyad caliphate the punishment for theft was flogging.