A third example: if he shoots at someone thinking that he is an apostate whose repentance would not be accepted—such as one who has reviled Allah, according to the well-known position of the school—but it turns out to be someone else, then this is not deliberate killing.

A fourth example: if he shoots at someone thinking that he is an adulterer who has previously been married. Such an adulterer does not have inviolable life, because he is stoned to death. But if it becomes clear that he was not the adulterer who had previously been married, then this is not deliberate killing.

It should be noted that this applies if the heirs of the deceased agree with him. But if they say, “You intended him,” and he replies, “I did not intend him,” then the word of the heirs of the deceased is accepted, because intent is a hidden matter, and the Sacred Law judges only by what is outwardly apparent. What is apparent is that he intended him; and his claim that he did not intend him, or that he thought him to be non-human, is not accepted. For if we were to accept what he claims, everyone who killed a person unlawfully would say, “I did not intend him,” or, “I did not think him to be a human being whose life was inviolable,” or something similar.

His statement, “and kills him”: if he intends an assault by means of something that normally kills, but the victim survives—for instance, he strikes him on the head with an axe, intending to kill him, until his head splits open, but he is treated and recovers—then this is not deliberate killing, because it is necessary that he actually kill him.

His statement, “by something which is likely, in all probability, to cause his death”: this is more important; that is, the assault must be carried out by something that is likely, in all probability, to kill. An example is striking him on the head with a cleaver and then saying, “I did not think he would die!” This is not accepted, because it is likely, in all probability, that he would die from it.

But if he strikes him with a fan, and it so happens that the victim is asleep, is startled, and dies, then it is not deliberate killing, because a fan is not something from which death is likely, in all probability, to result. So pay attention to the conditions which