Introduction
Punishment can be defined as the deliberate infliction of suffering on a supposed or actual offender for an offense such as a legal transgression. According to this definition, the punishment should involve inflicting a pain or a deprivation and should be implemented by governments. It has generally been agreed that a punishment requires a moral and legal justification. Therefore, as the eighteenth century appeared a lot of theories which tried to justify the punishment such as, Utilitarianism, Retributivism, and Rehabilitation. As well as, in Islamic thinking appeared a lot of theories when the Islamic scholars tried to understand the wisdom of the punishment in Islamic law. Nevertheless, it is looked so clear that Islamic scholars had confused between the aim of punishment and the justification of punishment, this is clear in their books when they tried to define the punishment with a citation the aim of punishment. For instance, Al-Mawardi defined the punishment as deterrence and disincentives for sins, by looking at such definition, it can be seen that Al-Mawardi had confused between the aim of punishment and the justification of punishment because he used the word deterrence when he justified the punishment. In this study, the researcher highlights utilitarian justifications and modern Islamic scholars of punishment.
 
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is the moral theory that holds that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by the balance of good over evil which is produced by that action. This means that the protection of society and reducing the crime is the justification of punishment according to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. As a result, punishing an offender would most likely reduce the crime and provides safe the society. In addition, by punishing the offenders can intimidate the potential offenders and other members of society from repeating the same crime. Moreover, by excommunication and punishing offenders may lead to prevent them from reoffending. So it is clear that utilitarians seek to protect the society from looking to consequences of the punishment if the punishment leads to reducing crimes, they accept it but if does not reduce the number of offenders, they do not accept it. Unfortunately, the utilitarian justification is based on experience; rather than real data. Hence, as such theory suggests, the punishment can be harsher if will lead to protect the community. In short, the utilitarians’ justification of punishments seeks to what is best for society in general, and over the long run. In other words, utilitarians focus on public interesting through diminishing the crimes and safety of society.



Islamic concept of punishment
According to Muslim perception, Islam looks to the crime on the grounds that they are sins and infractions which the perpetrator its will face punishments in this life and the hereafter. So, many Islamic scholars, such as Al-Mawardi, Ibn Taymiyyah, and Al-Ghazali, believe that all rules in Islam including punishments should be classified under the most  five important aspects of human lives which are: 

       Indeed, by looking at these five aspects, it can be concluded that all these aspects aim to protect societies or public interesting. For example, they mentioned the Qisas under save life, the Hadd Apostasy under save the religion, Hadd the stealing under save the wealth, had drank alcohol under save the mind and slander under save the honor. However, in Islamic law, offences are divided into two major groups as the following. Firstly, crimes which called Hadd, in this kind of crimes the exclusive right is a right of Allah. Secondly, Qisas in this kind of crimes the exclusive right is human right. For example, assault and damage to property and so on. As a result, based on this partition, it can be seen that, Islamic Fiqh known the differences between protection the society which come under the first group, Hudud. In contrast, retribution comes under the second group which is Qisas. In short, it can be said that there are three justifications of punishment in Islamic Fiqh, namely, Utilitarianism, retribution and Rehabilitation.
 
Conclusion:
Undoubtedly, utilitarian justification has a strong argument and a strong justification which protects the society, hence, this justification is a logical and moral. The Islamic law, as usual, has a good mix of justifications even if some scholars said that Islam law does not recognize retribution as a justification of punishment. However, it is a fact that the Islamic law saves the human rights which is one of them, the victim’s right in the revenge because this is the nature of human ; so, we can find the Qisas cases in Islam law. Therefore, in my opinion, the most important justification of punishment which the Islamic law focused on that is the utilitarian because of the Islamic law seeks to protect the society by maintaining its safety and stability. Despite this, Islamic law does not overlook the rest of justifications such as retribution in Qisas cases and Islamic law does not overlook rehabilitation as a justification of punishment as well. As a result, Islamic law justifies the punishment as a method to protect the society, reform the offenders and revenge of the offender to make the victim feels comfortable.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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