on the road she panicked; the contractions struck her, she delivered the child prematurely, it cried twice and then died. ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—sought the counsel of the Prophet’s Companions ﷺ. Some of them said, “You bear no liability.” ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—objected: “If they spoke merely to suit your wishes, they did not sincerely advise you. The dīyah (blood money) is on you, because you frightened her and she miscarried.”

Whoever orders a legally responsible person to descend a well, climb a tree, or the like, and that person obeys and perishes in the course of doing so, the one who gave the order is not liable, for he neither committed an offense nor transgressed against him.

If, however, the person instructed is not legally responsible, the liability rests with the one who issued the command, for he became the direct cause of the loss.

Likewise, if someone hires a worker to go down a well or climb a tree and the worker dies as a result, the employer bears no liability, because he has neither wronged him nor overstepped the limits.

And if a man engages someone to dig a well in his house and the digger dies when the structure collapses, no one is held accountable; the loss is deemed unindemnified, for there was no aggression involved.

From all this we perceive how earnestly Islam safeguards human life and protects the blood of the innocent.

Yet in our own times this responsibility is often treated lightly. Reckless drivers imperil their own lives and the lives of others, and countless innocent souls have been lost as a consequence. An entire group—indeed a whole family—may be wiped out by a rash, irresponsible youth who neither appreciates the gravity of his actions nor considers their repercussions, and the fault may ultimately lie with those youths’ parents