and it is related that Suwayd ibn al-Ṣāmit once killed a man; the Prophet ﷺ ordered legal retaliation (qaṣāṣ) against him but did not impose any expiation. Likewise, ʿAmr ibn Umayya al-Ḍamarī killed two men deliberately; the Prophet ﷺ accepted their blood money yet required no expiation of him. The reason is that expiation was ordained for accidental killing in order to erase its sin, for such a case is seldom free of some negligence on the part of the killer; hence it is not prescribed where the sin is so grave that an expiation could never efface it.
Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said: “There is no expiation for deliberate homicide, nor for the engulfing false oath (yamīn ghamūs); this is not a concession to the one who commits them.”
Al-Muwaffaq Ibn Qudāmah and others stated: “Accidental killing cannot be characterized as either forbidden or permitted, for it resembles the killing committed by a madman; yet the life that is taken is inviolate and protected, and for that reason the expiation has been made obligatory …” End quote.
The meaning is that the wisdom behind legislating expiation for accidental killing rests on two considerations:
- The mistake is not devoid of some negligence by the killer.
- Regard for the sanctity of the life that has been lost.
As for intentional murder, no expiation is due, because its sin is too weighty and severe to be removed by an expiation. However, if the deliberate killer repents to Allah and surrenders himself so that retaliation may be taken, that lightens his burden: the right of Allah is removed through repentance, the right of the heirs through retaliation or their pardon, while the right of the victim remains—Allah will satisfy him with whatever