as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “May Allah show mercy to a servant who is gracious when he pays what he owes and gracious when he seeks what is owed to him.” (1)

• In the words, “and if any pardon is granted to him by his brother,” there is a gentle appeal and encouragement to accept the diyah (blood-money) instead of retaliation; an even higher virtue is to pardon completely without taking anything.

• The expression “his brother” is proof that a person who commits deliberate murder does not thereby leave the fold of Islam, for the brotherhood referred to here is the brotherhood of faith, and the act of killing does not sever it. By the same token, anyone who commits sins lesser than murder does not become a disbeliever; he merely incurs punishment and his faith is diminished unless he repents.

• If the heirs of the slain—whether all of them or only some—grant a pardon, the killer’s blood becomes protected and he is inviolable both to them and to everyone else. For that reason Allah says, “Whoever transgresses thereafter,” that is, after the pardon, “shall have a painful punishment,” meaning in the Hereafter. As for whether he is still to be executed, that has already been determined: because he killed someone equal to himself, he must in turn be put to death.

• Allah then clarified His profound wisdom in legislating retaliation, saying: “And in legal retaliation there is life for you” (Qur’an 2:179). Through it blood is spared and evildoers are restrained, for one who knows that if he kills he will be killed will scarcely commit murder, and when people see the murderer executed, others are deterred. Had the murderer been punished with anything short of execution, the restraint of evil would not be as effective.

• The same principle applies to all the prescribed penalties: they contain a measure of chastisement and deterrence that points to the wisdom of the All-Wise, the All-Forgiving.

• The noun “life” is left indefinite to underscore its vast and weighty significance.