and, when the term is used without qualification, it is understood to refer to the nose.

– Whoever castrates: the khuṣyā (testicle) is the oval reproductive gland, and a man has two khuṣyāt. To castrate him is to extract the two testicles, removing them from the scrotum, or to sever them outright.

• Points derived from the ḥadith

1 – The ḥadith affirms the principle of retribution (qiṣāṣ) in criminal offenses: whoever commits intentional homicide, or deliberately destroys a limb or organ of another person—such as his nose or his testicle—is punished in kind, limb for limb. This ruling is expressly stated in the verse, “And there is for you in retribution life” (al-Baqarah 2:179).

2 – The ḥadith further indicates that qiṣāṣ applies between a master and his slave, an issue on which jurists have differed:
• Abū Ḥanīfah held that a free man may be subjected to qiṣāṣ for killing or maiming a slave—whether the offense involves life or limb—so long as there is no fear of injustice, basing his view on the general wording of the verse on qiṣāṣ. He excepted the case in which the offender is the slave’s owner, in which event no retaliation is taken.
Al-Ṣanʿānī commented, “The aḥādīth in this chapter are insufficient as decisive proof.”
• The other three Imams maintained that a free person is never executed or punished in kind for a slave, citing the verse, “The free man for the free man” (al-Baqarah 2:178). The definiteness of the subject confines the ruling, showing that a free man is not killed except for another free man. The verse in al-Māʾidah, “A life for a life” (al-Māʾidah 5:45), is unrestricted, while the verse in al-Baqarah restricts and clarifies it. Moreover, the verse in al-Māʾidah addressed the law of the People of the Book, whereas this sharīʿah came afterward as an easing and a mercy.

3 – The narration also confirms qiṣāṣ for bodily limbs. Shaykh al-Islām said, “Retribution for wounds is established by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and consensus. The scholars have conditioned the permissibility of qiṣāṣ for injuries short of taking life on three requirements:
First: safety from inequity, meaning that the cut be taken from a joint, or at a clearly defined boundary.”