al-Muwaffaq, and others. This is likewise the predominant view among the leading scholars of the Daʿwah (may Allah have mercy on them), on account of a number of hadiths, among them: the hadith of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Be aware that the diya for quasi-intentional killing committed with a whip or a staff is one hundred camels, forty of which are carrying their unborn young”; the hadith of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm (may Allah be pleased with him) in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “For a life, the compensation is one hundred camels”; and the hadith of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him) in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The diya for accidental killing is twenty ḥiqqahs, twenty jadhʿahs, twenty banāt makhāḍ, twenty banī makhāḍ, and twenty banāt labūn.”
Abu Dawud also related with a sound chain from ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said, “For quasi-intentional killing the compensation is twenty-five ḥiqqahs, twenty-five jadhʿahs, twenty-five banāt labūn, and twenty-five banāt makhāḍ.” These hadiths show that camels are the primary medium of diyas. Furthermore, the Prophet ﷺ differentiated between the diya for intentional or quasi-intentional homicide and that for accidental homicide—making the former heavier and the latter lighter—and that distinction can be fully realized only with camels. From this it is clear that the stronger opinion is that camels alone are the essence of the diya, while everything else represents merely an assessed equivalent. This is supported by the fact that the compensations for injuries short of loss of life—such as limbs, teeth, or fractures—are also stated in the hadiths in terms of camels.
Based on this preferred view—that the diya is fundamentally expressed in camels and that it may be appraised in other forms—there is the established report from the Commander of the Believers ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him). He once delivered a sermon and said, “Camels have become expensive. Therefore, assess for those who pay in gold one thousand dinars, for those who pay in silver twelve thousand dirhams, for those who pay in cattle two hundred head, for those who pay in sheep two thousand sheep, and for those who pay in garments two hundred suits.”
This shows that ʿUmar’s imposition of items other than camels was a valuation necessitated by the high price of camels. Had those other categories been original media of the diya in their own right, his ruling would not have been an appraisal of camels, nor would the rise in camel prices have mattered, nor