Book of Criminal Offenses (Jināyāt)

The offenses for which the Sacred Law has fixed ḥadd-penalties are four in number:

1. Offenses against bodies, lives, and limbs—what is called killing and wounding.

2. Offenses against the private parts—that is, fornication and illicit sexual intercourse.

3. Offenses against property. When property is seized by armed force without any colorable legal claim, the act is termed ḥirābah (armed robbery). If the force is exercised on the basis of a contested interpretation, it is called baghy (rebellion). When property is taken covertly from a secure place, it is theft (sarīqah), and when the aggressor is someone of superior rank or authority it is labeled ghaṣb (usurpation).

4. Offenses against reputation—namely, false accusation of fornication (qadhf).

There is also the offense of transgressing by treating as lawful what the Law has forbidden in matters of food and drink. Of these, the only act for which this Sharīʿah imposes a fixed ḥadd is wine, and that penalty is unanimously acknowledged after the Prophet—may Allah’s blessings be upon him.

Let us begin, then, with the penalties that deal with blood. The liability incurred for the destruction of life or limb is either retribution (qiṣāṣ) or monetary compensation, which is called the diyah (blood-money).

Accordingly, the present discussion divides first into two parts: an examination of retribution and an examination of blood-money. The section on retribution is further divided into retribution for lives and retribution for limbs, while the section on blood-money subdivides into compensation for lives and compensation for severed limbs and wounds.

Thus, this work is initially arranged into two separate books:

1. The Book of Retribution (Kitāb al-Qiṣāṣ).
2. The Book of Blood-Money (Kitāb al-Diyāt).