A Saudi court has ordered a drug user to spend six months memorising the Qur’an, but he faces a year in prison if he fails to recite the Muslim holy book by heart, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
The ”alternative sentence” saves the Saudi man from Jeddah from a six-month jail term, al-Watan said. But that sentence will be doubled if his Qur’anic recitation classes fail to make him a ”hafez,” someone who knows the Qur’an by heart.
There are more than 77 000 words in the Qur’an. It takes on average two years to study.
Saudi Arabia’s religious courts apply strict Islamic sharia law. But it is largely uncodified and judges have wide discretion when it comes to sentencing. – Reuters