if the claimant asks for the slave and the master refuses to surrender him. Even after the master has opted to ransom him, the sounder opinion allows him to retract that choice and hand the slave over instead. A slave-woman who has borne him a child (umm walad) is ransomed with whichever is less—her value or the assessed compensation—though another view preserves the two earlier alternatives; and, according to the stronger position, all her separate offenses are treated as a single offense.

Section
For a fetus, a ghurrah (one-twentieth of a full diyah, normally paid as a male or female slave) is due when it is expelled dead because of an assault, whether the mother survives or dies; the same ruling, on the sound view, applies when the fetus becomes externally visible without full separation. Otherwise, nothing is payable. If the child is born alive, remains for a time without pain, and then dies, no liability is incurred; but if it dies immediately after delivery, or its pain persists and it dies, a full diyah is required. If the woman miscarries twins, two ghurras are due; if she miscarries only a hand, one ghurrah, and the same for an unformed mass of flesh. The jurists point out a subtle case: had the fetus remained long enough to take shape, it would have been a distinct male or female slave free from sale-defects. The sounder view accepts even an adult slave, provided old age has not made him incapable. The slave’s price must reach at least one-half of one-tenth of a diyah; if such a slave is unavailable, five camels are paid instead. Another opinion drops this condition and, when a suitable slave cannot be found, requires payment of the slave’s market value. The ghurrah goes to the heirs of the fetus and is charged to the killer’s ʿāqilah; a different view holds that, if the act was intentional, the killer himself must pay. Regarding a Jewish or Christian fetus, one opinion treats it like a Muslim one, another deems it valueless, while the soundest view fixes a ghurrah equal to one-third of that for a Muslim. For a slave fetus the compensation is one-tenth of the mother’s value on the day of the assault, payable to her owner prior to miscarriage. If the mother is already maimed while the fetus is sound, she is evaluated as if sound, according to the sounder opinion, and the liability is borne by the ʿāqilah on the stronger view.

Section
An expiation (kaffārah) is obligatory for homicide even if the killer is a minor, insane, a slave, a dhimmī, whether the killing was deliberate, accidental, or indirect. It is due for killing a Muslim—even in enemy territory—a dhimmī, a fetus, one’s own slave, and, according to one opinion, for suicide. No kaffārah is required for killing an enemy woman or child, a rebel, an assailant, or a person put to death in lawful retaliation. Each partner in a joint killing must offer an individual kaffārah, on the sound view. This expiation is the same as that for ẓihār, but, according to the stronger opinion, it does not include the feeding of sixty poor persons.