Book of Injuries
Injuries are of two kinds:
- Those for which retaliation (qiṣāṣ), blood-money (diyah), or pardon may be sought; and
- Those for which only blood-money or pardon is available.
We shall begin with the first category. In doing so we must examine: the qualifications of the assailant, the nature of the wound that makes retaliation due, the status of the victim, the ruling itself—namely retaliation—and the recompense that may replace it, should a substitute be permissible.
I. The Assailant
The assailant must be legally accountable (mukallaf), just as is required of a killer; that is, he must be sane and have reached puberty. Puberty is established either by seminal emission or by age, a matter on which there is no disagreement, though the jurists differ over the exact age: its upper limit is eighteen lunar years and its lower limit fifteen, the view adopted by al-Shāfiʿī.
There is unanimous agreement that if one person severs a limb for which retaliation is prescribed, that person’s corresponding limb is severed in return. They differ, however, when a group collectively severs a single limb.
• The Ẓāhirīs say: “Two hands are not cut for one hand.”
• Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī maintain: “The hands of all the offenders are cut for the one hand,” just as, in their view, multiple killers may all be put to death for a single life.
• The Ḥanafīs distinguish between life and limbs, saying: “Several limbs are not cut for one limb, whereas several lives may be taken for a single life,” because, in their estimation, limbs are divisible whereas life is not.
II. The Sign of Puberty by Hair Growth
The jurists also disagreed about the appearance of pubic hair (inbāt).
• Al-Shāfiʿī regards it, without qualification, as proof of puberty.
Within his school there is a further debate in the ḥudūd: does this sign establish puberty for the application of the fixed penalties or not?
The foundation for all of these discussions is the ḥadīth concerning Banū Qurayẓah: “He—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—executed every male who had begun to grow hair and over whom the razor passed.” Likewise, the benchmark for age is the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar: “He presented himself to the Prophet on the day of Uḥud when he was fourteen, and the Prophet did not accept him; he presented himself again on the day of Uḥud when he was fifteen, and the Prophet accepted him.”