In Malaysia, Muslim personal matters as well as the administration of Islamic institution in each state are under the jurisdiction of state as provided under the Second List of the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution. Under the Islamic criminal law, the scholars believe that the sanction always practical and realistic to be enforced.
Now, we would like to observe the sentence of whipping under Islamic Criminal Law. Fiqh scholars defined whipping as to hit with a whip. It is as a kind of twigs of wood which is neither too new nor too old with a simple size and that the cane is not too strong and not too weak.
The procedures on whipping under Sharia criminal law is mention under Section 125 of the Syariah Criminal Procedure (Federal Territories) Act 1997.
The provision stated that the whipping rod, excluding its holder, shall be of the same type and made either from rattan or small branch of a tree without segment or joint and its length not more than 1.22 metres and its thickness not more than 1.25 centimetres.
Next, the procedures in sentencing the offenders are as follows:
(a) before execution of the of the sentence, the offender shall be examined by a Government Medical Officer to certify that the offender is in a fit state of health to undergo the sentence
(b) if the offender is pregnant, the execution shall be postponed until the end of two months after delivery or miscarriage, as the case may be;
(c) the sentence shall be executed before a Government Medical Officer in such place as the Court may direct or in a place fixed by the Government for the purpose;
(e) the person shall use the whipping rod with average force without lifting his hand over his head so that the offender’s skin is not cut;
(f) after inflicting a stroke, he shall lift the rod upward and not pull it;
(g) whipping may be inflicted on all parts of the body except the face, head, stomach, chest or private parts;
(h) the offender shall wear clothes according to Hukum Syarak;
(i) if the offender is a male the whipping shall be inflicted in a standing position, and if a female, in a sitting position;
(j) if during the execution of the whipping the Government Medical Officer certifies that the offender can no longer receive the strokes, the whipping shall be postponed until the Medical Officer certifies that the offender is fit to undergo the balance of the sentence