belonging to the person falsely accused,” and not a right owed to Allah. Abu Hanifah said that it is a right owed to Allah, exalted is He.
Based on the view that it is a right belonging to the person falsely accused, it is waived by his pardon. Thus, if he pardons the one who accused him of fornication, the prescribed punishment for false accusation is waived, because it is his right—just as when someone is owed a sum of dirhams and waives it, the debt is discharged. Nor is it enforced unless he requests it. So long as the person falsely accused remains silent, we say nothing to the accuser; even if the case reaches the imam, the prescribed punishment is not carried out against him, because it is the right of the person falsely accused. Since it is his right, we do not intervene until the rightful claimant comes forward and demands it.
A further consequence is that, if the person falsely accused is the accuser’s child, the prescribed punishment is not carried out against the accuser, based on the principle that a child does not possess an enforceable right against his father, except for the maintenance that Allah has made obligatory for him. Thus, if a father falsely accuses his child, the prescribed punishment is not carried out against him, because it is the child’s right, and the child has no enforceable right against his father.
Does this disagreement also entail that the punishment for a slave is halved, or that it remains complete? Some have made this dependent on the issue, saying: this disagreement entails that if it is a right belonging to the person falsely accused, the slave receives the full prescribed punishment; whereas if it is a right owed to Allah, the slave receives half the punishment, as in the case of fornication.
Thus, four matters follow from considering the prescribed punishment for false accusation to be a right belonging to the person falsely accused:
First: it is waived by his pardon.
Second: it is not carried out until he demands it.
Third: it is not carried out in favor of a child against his father.
Fourth: a slave receives the full prescribed punishment.
If we say that it is a right owed to Allah, the rulings are reversed: the prescribed punishment is carried out without a demand, and it is not waived by pardon once the case reaches the imam, as in the prescribed punishment for theft,