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

Two men quarrelled and grappled with one another, but neither struck the other. One of them was ill. They then parted without injury. A week later, one of them died; the other had fled three days before his death. The fugitive’s father was detained and required to produce his son. Believing that his son’s adversary had not died, he undertook before the man’s family to discharge whatever liability might be established against his son.

When the man died, they imprisoned the father for nine months. The father then reached a financial settlement with the deceased’s family, and the accused and all his family were released from liability. May the father, who undertook to pay this sum, recover a contribution from each of his paternal cousins? And is the fugitive absolved of liability?

He replied:

If it is established that the fugitive killed him unintentionally—that one of them was ill and the other beat him severely, aggravating his illness and causing his death—then the blood money is payable by his liable kin. His agnatic relatives, whether paternal cousins or others, must therefore bear the sum accepted by the slain man’s family, since it is less than the blood money.

If, however, none of this is established, and the father was held liable solely on the basis of his own admission, his admission imposes no liability upon them. Those entitled to the blood money who agreed to settle for this sum have no right to demand more than it. And Allah knows best.