Book of Criminal Injuries

Killing is of three types: pure intentional homicide, pure accidental homicide, and quasi-intentional homicide.

1. Pure intentional homicide is to strike a person with an instrument that normally causes death while intending to kill him. In that case retaliation (qiṣāṣ) is obligatory. If the heirs pardon the killer, an aggravated indemnity (diyah) becomes immediately payable out of the killer’s own wealth.

2. Pure accidental homicide is to aim at something else, hit a man instead, and kill him. No retaliation is due, but a reduced diyah is owed by the ʿāqilah (the killer’s male agnate relatives), payable over three years.

3. Quasi-intentional homicide is to strike someone with an object that does not ordinarily kill, yet the victim dies. Retaliation is not applied; rather, an aggravated diyah is owed by the ʿāqilah, likewise deferred over three years.

The enforcement of retaliation is subject to four conditions:
• the killer must be legally adult and sane;
• he must not be the victim’s parent;
• the victim must not be of lower status than the killer because of unbelief or slavery; and
• a group may be executed for killing one person.

Whenever retaliation applies between two parties in matters of life, it applies between them in matters of limbs as well.

For retaliation involving limbs, in addition to the conditions just mentioned, two further requirements exist: (1) identity of the specific limb—right for right and left for left—and (2) that neither of the two limbs be paralyzed. Any limb taken off at a joint entails retaliation. Retaliation is not imposed for wounds except for the muḍḥiyah, the head wound that exposes the bone.

Section

The diyah is of two grades: aggravated and reduced.

• The aggravated diyah is one hundred camels: thirty ḥiqqahs, thirty jadhʿahs, and forty khulfahs carrying unborn young in their wombs.
• The reduced diyah is one hundred camels: twenty ḥiqqahs, twenty jadhʿahs, and twenty bint-