livestock are not themselves the offenders, since they are neither addressed by divine commands nor held legally accountable. Rather, their owner is the offender, because he failed to prevent them from causing damage at night. He must therefore compensate for whatever crops or property they damage at night, however little or much, and may not surrender the livestock in compensation for that damage. A slave, however, possesses reason, is legally accountable, and is addressed by divine commands. He is therefore the offender, and liability for his offences attaches to his person. Once his master surrenders him, nothing further is due from the master, since no one bears responsibility for another’s offence. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:
“No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another.” [al-Anʿām: 164]
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, also said to Abū Rimthah concerning his son: “You are not held liable for his offence, nor is he held liable for yours.”
The exception is when the master orders him to commit the offence. If he does so, retaliation is exacted from both of them according to Ibn al-Qāsim, whether the slave is fluent in Arabic or non-Arabic-speaking. Ibn Wahb said: “If a master orders his slave to kill a man, then, if the slave is fluent in Arabic, the slave is executed in retaliation, while the master receives one hundred lashes and is imprisoned for a year. If the slave is non-Arabic-speaking, the master is executed in retaliation, while the slave receives one hundred lashes and is imprisoned for a year.” As for damage caused by livestock during the day, their owner bears no liability, because the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Injury caused by an animal entails no compensation.”
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The owner is exempt from liability for damage the livestock cause to crops during the day only if he has taken them beyond all the village’s cultivated fields and left them on the grazing grounds. If, however, he lets them loose to graze before they have passed beyond all the village’s cultivated fields, without a herdsman to keep them away from the crops, he is liable for whatever damage they cause. If their herdsmen are with them, the owner bears no liability. Rather, liability falls upon the herdsman if his negligence or failure to watch over them allows them to cause damage. This is how the scholars understood the established report that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ruled that crop owners must guard their crops during the day, while livestock owners are liable for whatever damage their animals cause at night.
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The basis for this ruling is the saying of Allah, Exalted is He:
“And David and Solomon, when they judged concerning the field into which the sheep of a people had strayed by night.” [al-Anbiyāʾ: 78]—to the end of the verse.
Nafsh (straying to graze) occurs only at night; during the day it is termed hamal (roaming unattended). Our law follows this in imposing liability upon the owner of