Chapter: Pardoning Retaliation

In cases of deliberate killing, retaliation or blood money is due; the legal guardian may choose between the two, though pardoning without compensation is better.

Know that this religious community—praise be to Allah—is a middle course between two communities: one of which went to excess regarding retaliation, while the other fell short in it. This does not mean that we say these two laws departed from what Allah legislated. Rather, in His wisdom, Allah made one ruling obligatory for one people and another ruling obligatory for the other. It has been mentioned that the law of the Jews required retaliation, with no avenue for pardoning the offender; whereas the law of the Christians required pardoning retaliation, with no recourse to retaliation.

This law came as a middle course between the two communities: retaliation is obligatory, yet pardon is permissible. Hence Allah, Most High, says in the verse: “This is an alleviation from your Lord” [al-Baqarah 2:178], in view of the obligation of retaliation, “and a mercy,” in view of pardon. That is, it is from Allah’s mercy that He grants the heirs of the slain a measure of satisfaction for themselves, through which they may find relief against the killer.

His statement, “In cases of deliberate killing,” means deliberate, wrongful killing without right.

His statement, “retaliation or blood money”: the word “or” here indicates a choice. Therefore, he says:

“the legal guardian may choose between them.” The legal guardian means the guardian of the slain—namely, his heirs. The term “guardian” is a generic noun, and thus includes whether there is one heir or more.

The evidence for this is Allah’s saying: “O you who believe, prescribed for you is legal retribution for those who have been killed: the free for the free, the slave for the slave, and the female for the female. But whoever is pardoned anything by his brother