but if the ruler performs on a minor something he is not permitted to do, an aggravated blood money is taken from his own property. Any compensation that becomes due because of the ruler’s mistake in carrying out a ḥadd or issuing a judgment is borne by his ʿāqilah, although one view places it on the public treasury. If he enforces a ḥadd on the strength of two witnesses who later turn out to be slaves, non-Muslims, or pre-pubescent youths, then—should he have been negligent in examining them—the liability is his; otherwise, the two opinions just mentioned apply. Once the payment has been made by the ʿāqilah or the treasury, there is, according to the sounder view, no recourse against those non-Muslim or slave witnesses.

Anyone who performs cupping or blood-letting with the patient’s permission incurs no liability. A killing or beating carried out by an executioner on the ruler’s orders is treated as the ruler’s own act when the executioner does not know the ruler’s injustice or error; if he does know, retaliation and liability fall upon the executioner, provided he was not coerced.

Female circumcision is obligatory by removing a small portion of flesh from the upper part of the private area, while male circumcision is obligatory by cutting off the foreskin that covers the glans once the boy reaches puberty. It is recommended to perform the procedure in the seventh year; if the child is too weak to bear it, it is postponed. Whoever circumcises a child at an age he cannot endure becomes liable for retaliation, except in the case of the father. If the child can endure it and his guardian carries it out, then, according to the sounder view, no liability arises. The fee is paid from the circumcised person’s own property.

Section

Anyone in charge of an animal—or several animals—is liable, day and night, for any loss of life or property they cause. If the animal urinates or defecates on the road and someone dies or property is damaged because of it, there is no liability. He must, however, avoid unusual conduct, such as hard galloping through mud; if he does not, he is liable for the resulting damage.

If someone carries firewood on his back or on an animal and it scrapes a building so that the structure collapses, he is liable. When he enters a marketplace and life or property is harmed by his load, he is liable if the place is crowded; if it is not crowded and only a garment is torn, he is not liable—except for the garment of a blind person or of someone standing with his back to the animal, in which case he must warn him.

Liability arises only when the property owner was not negligent; thus, if the owner placed the property in the pathway or otherwise exposed it to the animal, there is no liability.

If an unattended animal destroys crops or other property during the day, the owner is not liable; if it happens at night, he is liable—unless he was not negligent in tethering it, or the crop owner was present and failed to drive it away. The same ruling applies when the crops are in an enclosure whose gate the owner has left open, according to the sounder view.

As for a cat that is known to prey on birds or food, its owner is liable, day and night, for whatever it destroys; otherwise, the sounder opinion is that he is not liable.