, while destroying only one of the pair incurs half the diyah, because each organ combines function with beauty and there is nothing else of its kind in the body.

Al-Muwaffaq said, “We know of no dissenting opinion on this.”

In the written directives sent to ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm it is recorded that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote: “For a nose that is completely severed, the diyah; for the tongue, the diyah; for the two lips, the diyah; for the two testicles, the diyah; for the spine, the diyah; for the two eyes, the diyah; and for a single leg, half the diyah.”

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH) remarked, “The document of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm is well-known among the scholars, and what it contains is almost universally accepted.”

As for organs that exist in three parts, if all three are destroyed the full diyah becomes due, whereas destroying just one of them requires one-third of the diyah. The nose is the prime example, for it comprises three components: the two nostrils and the septum between them. The diyah is therefore apportioned among these parts in the same way it is apportioned among the fingers.

Where an organ exists in four parts, destroying all four obligates the full diyah, and damaging one part obligates one-quarter of it. The four eyelids illustrate this, for they provide both manifest beauty and complete protection: they shelter the eye and guard it from heat and cold. Hence the diyah is due for them in full, and proportionally for any of them that is lost.

If all the fingers of the two hands are severed, the full diyah is due; the same applies to all the toes of the two feet. When every finger (or toe) is cut off, each individual digit carries one-tenth of the diyah, based on the hadith narrated by Ibn ʿAbbās, traced back to the Prophet: