the blood money. A group of scholars from Kufa held that the payment must fall short of the blood money for a free person by some amount: some specified one dirham, while others specified ten dirhams. Al-Hasan said that if a free person kills a slave accidentally, he owes blood money and expiation. He did not clarify whether the payment comes from the killer’s own wealth or is borne by his ‘āqila. Since he left the matter unqualified, it should follow the rules governing blood money for accidental and deliberate killing.

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There are three opinions concerning injuries inflicted on a slave.

The first is that whoever injures him must compensate for the reduction in his value, without further distinction, by analogy with merchandise and animals.

The second is that compensation for his injuries is calculated proportionately to his value, just as compensation for a free person’s injuries is calculated proportionately to his blood money. Al-Shāfi‘ī said: “Drawing an analogy between a slave and a free person is more appropriate than comparing him to animals and merchandise, for he is a rational living being subject to religious obligations, unlike animals and merchandise.”

The third is that whoever injures him must compensate for the reduction in his value, except in the case of a skull wound reaching the brain, a wound penetrating a body cavity, or a wound exposing the bone. Compensation for these is calculated as the same proportion of his value as their compensation bears to a free person’s blood money. The rulings concerning injuries will be discussed in their proper place; we have mentioned them here only because of their connection with this subject.

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On Blood Money for a Fetus

It remains, among the rulings concerning blood money, to discuss blood money for a fetus. It is established that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—“ruled that compensation consisting of a male or female slave was due for a fetus expelled from its mother’s womb.”

The scholars unanimously agree on this ruling: compensation consisting of a male or female slave is due for the fetus of a free Muslim or Christian woman by a Muslim man, or of a slave woman by her free master, if the fetus is expelled dead while its mother is alive. This applies whether the fetus is male or female, fully formed or not, provided that it is certainly a fetus.

Any fetus conceived by a slave woman from her master whose miscarriage would establish her status as an umm walad (a slave woman who has borne her master a child) entails compensation of a male or female slave from the person responsible, according to each scholar’s position on what establishes that status. There is no disagreement among the scholars concerning any of this. They differed, however, over the value of this compensation, who bears it in cases of accidental injury, and from whom it is due.