Book of Qiṣāṣ (retaliation) and Jināyāt (criminal offenses)
Chapter: The rulings on homicide and its categories

Our jurists, may Allah have mercy on them, define the term jināyāt—the plural of jināyah—as, in its linguistic sense, any transgression against a person’s body, property, or honor.

They devoted a separate work to the first of these, transgression against the body, calling it the Book of Jināyāt.

The second and third kinds—assaults on property and honor—they treated in the Book of Ḥudūd (prescribed punishments).

A bodily offense is any act that obligates retaliation, financial compensation, or expiation.

The Muslims unanimously agree that it is forbidden to kill without right, a ruling established by evidence from the Quran and the Sunnah.

Allah the Exalted says: “And they do not kill a soul that Allah has made sacred, except with right.”

The Prophet ﷺ said: “The blood of a Muslim is not lawful except in one of three cases: a married adulterer, a life for a life, and one who abandons his religion and separates from the community.”

This ḥadīth is related by Muslim and others, and numerous reports convey the same meaning.