A Comparative Study of the Crimes Leading to the Death Penalty in the Quran, Zoroastrian Legal Sources, and the Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the death penalty in Zoroastrianism, the Quran, and the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran. By studying antient Zoroastrian texts, we face a variety of crimes and punishments such as murder, robbery, adultery, magic, rape, and assault that were always considered to be the worst offenses. Zoroastrian religious scholars wrote books on crimes and their punishment in this world and the hereafter. Islam, like all other divine religions, regards the death penalty as a permissible and sometimes obligatory punishment for the perpetrators of capital offenses, while in other cases it prohibits the death penalty and considers it a grave sin. The Islamic penal system strives to confront offenses and injustice and eliminate corruption. This paper discusses the differences and similarities between the crimes that lead to the death penalty in pre-Islamic Iran, the Quran, and the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.