As for the “deliberate killer,” he is liable to execution in retaliation. If they agree to accept blood money, this is permissible according to the scriptural texts and scholarly consensus. The blood money is then paid from the killer’s own wealth, unlike accidental killing, for which the blood money is borne by his ‘āqila (blood-money guarantors).

As for “expiation,” the majority of scholars hold that deliberate killing is too grave to be expiated in this way. They say the same of a deliberately false oath. This is the position of Mālik, Abū Hanīfa, and Ahmad according to the well-known report from him. Likewise, they all agree that unlawful sexual intercourse is too grave to be expiated in this way; expiation is prescribed only for intercourse by a man who has pronounced zihār (a declaration likening his wife to a female relative forbidden to him in marriage), and for intercourse during Ramadan.

Al-Shāfi‘ī, and Ahmad according to the other report from him, hold instead that expiation is obligatory for deliberate killing and a deliberately false oath. They agree that expiation alone does not remove the sin.

He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was asked:

A group of people jointly killed a man whose heirs include both minors and adults. May his adult children have them executed, or not? If the minors’ guardian—whether the judge or someone else—joins the adult heirs in agreeing to their execution, are they to be executed or not?

He replied:

If they jointly killed him, all of them are liable to execution in retaliation, by agreement of the four imams. The heirs may have them executed, or they may pardon them. If the adult heirs agree to