hudud means The statutory punishments prescribed by the Quran for certain crimes, including theft, fornication, adultery, false accusation of adultery, drunkenness, and apostasy. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
HUDUD — [Noun] In Islamic law, the fixed, scripturally prescribed punishments for specific crimes considered violations of divine limits. From Arabic حُدُود (ḥudūd, plural of ḥadd), meaning 'boundaries, limits, penalties.' Unlike *ta'zir*, the discretionary realm where a judge's mercy may calibrate a sentence, or *qisas*, the horizontal calculus of blood-money and retribution between individuals, *hudud* are the vertical decrees, unyielding and absolute. It is the unblinking geometry of stone walls under a desert sun, the finality of a severed hand, and the percussive shock of stones against flesh—a stark architecture of justice meant to render divine law terrifyingly legible, a reminder that some boundaries are felt only in the moment of their violent transgression.
noun
- The statutory punishments prescribed by the Quran for certain crimes, including theft, fornication, adultery, false accusation of adultery, drunkenness, and apostasy.