Al-Muqaddimāt al-Mumahhidāt - Ibn Rush al-Jadd - (3/341)

Al-Muqaddimāt al-MumahhidātIbn Rush al-Jadd

from many of Mālik’s companions that a slave’s admission to an intentional offence is not admissible, because he is not permitted to bring about his own death at his master’s expense.

Section

Offences committed by slaves against free persons fall into two categories:
The first consists of offences against their lives.
The second consists of nonfatal wounds.

When a slave kills a free person, the killing must be either accidental or deliberate. If it is accidental, the killer’s master may choose either to surrender him or to redeem him by paying the blood money. If he chooses to redeem him, one view is that the blood money is payable immediately. This is Ibn al-Qāsim’s position in al-Mudawwanah, which he stated concerning the case of a slave and a free person colliding. Another view is that he redeems him by paying the blood money over three years. Ibn al-Qāsim related this from Mālik in his recorded transmission in the Book of Blood Money. It is also the apparent meaning of Asbagh’s recorded transmission in that same book concerning a free person and a slave colliding.

If the killing is deliberate, the free person’s heirs may choose either to execute the slave or to spare his life. If they execute him, his property remains with his master. If they take possession of him intending to execute him but then spare his life, there are two opinions concerning his property. According to the first, it belongs to his master, just as it would if they had executed him. According to the second, his property follows him, just as it would if they had spared his life and he had been surrendered to them as compensation for the offence. Both opinions appear in Asbagh’s recorded transmission in the Book of Blood Money.

If, however, they spare his life and he is surrendered to them, they may take him together with his property as compensation for the offence, unless his master wishes to redeem him, together with his property, by paying them the blood money due for the slain free person. He is entitled to do so. It has also been said that if the slave’s property consists of cash sufficient to cover the compensation for the offence, his master is not given a choice; rather, the compensation is paid from the slave’s property.

Section

As for nonfatal wounds inflicted by slaves upon free persons, the ruling is the same whether the wound is deliberate or accidental, since retaliation for wounds is not exacted from a free person on behalf of a slave. The master of the slave who inflicted the wound may therefore choose either to surrender him or to redeem him by paying the compensation for the wound. Payment is due immediately if the wound was deliberate, or if it was accidental and the compensation is less than one-third of the full blood money. If the wound was accidental and its compensation exceeds one-third, the disagreement already mentioned applies.

عن كثير من أصحاب مالك أنه لا يجوز إقراره على نفسه بجناية العمد لأنه لا يجوز له أن يتلف نفسه على سيده. فصل وأما جنايات العبيد على الأحرار فإنها تنقسم على وجهين: أحدهما: جناياتهم عليهم في النفس. والثاني: جناياتهم عليهم فيما دون النفس من الجراح. فأما جناياتهم عليهم في النفس فلا يخلو إذا قتل العبد الحر أن يكون ذلك خطأ أو عمدا. فإن كان خطأ خير سيد القاتل بين أن يسلمه أو يفتكه بالدية، فإن اختار افتكاكه بالدية قيل يفتكه بالدية حالة وهو مذهب ابن القاسم في المدونة، قاله في مسألة العبد والحر يصطدمان وقيل يفتكه بالدية مؤجلة في ثلاثة أعوام. وقاله ابن القاسم عن مالك في سماعه من كتاب الديات، وهو ظاهر في سماع أصبغ من الكتاب المذكور في مسألة الحر والعبد يصطدمان. وإن كان عمدا خير أولياء الحر بين أن يقتلوا العبد أو يستحيوه، فإن قتلوه بقي ماله لسيده، وإن أخذوه ليقتلوه فاستحيوه ففي ماله قولان: أحدهما: أن المال يكون للسيد كما لو قتلوه، والثاني: أن المال يكون تبعا له كما لو استحيوه فأسلم إليهم في الجناية. والقولان في سماع أصبغ من كتاب الديات. وأما إن استحيوه فأسلم إليهم فلهم أن يأخذوه في الجناية بماله إلا أن يشاء سيده أن يفتكه بماله منهم بدية الحر المقتول فيكون ذلك له. وقد قيل إن ماله إن كان عينا فيه وفاء بالجناية لم يخير سيده ووديت الجناية من ماله. فصل وأما جناياتهم عليهم فيما دون النفس من الجراح فسواء كان الجرح عمدا أو خطأ لأن العبد لا يقاد من الحر بالجراح، فيخير سيد العبد الجارح بين أن يسلمه أو يفتكه بدية الجرح حالا إن كان عمدا، أو أقل من الثلث إن كان خطأ. وإن كان الجرح خطأ وأرشه أكثر من الثلث فعلى الاختلاف المذكور.