Key vocabulary in the ḥadith:
– ahl al-dhimma (protected non-Muslims who live under Muslim rule): certain disbelievers who are allowed to remain upon their religion on the basis of a contract that obliges them to pay the jizya and to abide by the rulings of the Islamic state.
– muʿāhad (treaty-holder): a non-Muslim who has been granted safety and a covenant, making it unlawful to kill, enslave, or capture him.
– ʿaql al-marʾa (a woman’s blood-money): the indemnity owed for injuring or killing a woman. In general, a woman’s indemnity is half that of a man, except for injuries worth less than one-third of the full indemnity, in which case she receives the same as a man.

Points derived from the ḥadith:
1 – Two kinds of indemnities are indicated here:
a. The indemnity for a kitābī (member of the People of the Book) is one-half that of a free Muslim man, whether the person is a dhimmī, a treaty-holder, or a mustaʾmin (visitor under temporary safe-conduct), for they all share the right to have their blood protected. Compensation for their wounds is calculated from their own indemnities, just as Muslims’ wounds are calculated from theirs, because injury compensation follows the ratio of killing compensation.
b. The indemnity for a woman, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, is half that of a man of her own faith. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr and Ibn al-Mundhir relate that the scholars concur on this ruling.
2 – Her injuries are compensated at the same rate as a man of her faith so long as the amount is less than one-third of his full indemnity; once the threshold of one-third is reached or exceeded, she receives only half. This is based on the report recorded by al-Nasāʾī and al-Dāraqutnī from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “A woman’s indemnity is the same as a man’s until it reaches one-third of her indemnity.” Rabiʿah said: “I asked Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, ‘When her loss is greater, is her indemnity smaller?’ He replied, ‘Such is the sunnah, my nephew.’”
4 – Equality with a man up to one-third of the indemnity is the position of the two imams, Mālik and Aḥmad. Abū Ḥanīfah and al-Shāfiʿī, however, hold that a woman is always entitled to only half of a man’s indemnity, without restriction.