Insult to Sacred Places in Iranian Criminal Law, Imamiyya Jurisprudence and Sunni Jurisprudence

One of the crimes that has always been discussed in jurisprudence and established law, and in recent years, in addition to legal aspects, it has also taken on political dimensions and has even led to questions about it from non-specialists, is the crime of blasphemy This criminal title is mentioned at the beginning of Article 513 of the Islamic Penal Code (Book Five of the Ta’zirat) approved in 1375, but no definition has been provided for it. Most Sunni jurists and all Shiite jurists have discussed this issue in their jurisprudential works on the issue of insulting the Prophet, which is one of the main examples of blasphemy, some in the chapter on Hudud, and some at the end of the discussion on Qisas. From the perspective of jurists, whether Shiite or Sunni, the concept of blasphemy is ambiguous, and the only way to disambiguate this criminal title is to examine its jurisprudential foundations. This research intends to identify and analyze the comprehensive value and, possibly, the basic differences and similarities of each of these schools of thought regarding this crime by delving into reliable Shiite and Sunni jurisprudential sources. The simplicity of the concept of blasphemy and its examples, as well as the type of punishment that has been determined for it in the Five religions are among the ambiguity of the subject, which can be imagined as variables related to the issue.