Whoever seeks to suspend the law of retaliation between the high-born and the lowly has no warrant for doing so, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The blood of all Muslims is of equal worth,” and he also said, “A believer is not killed in retaliation for an unbeliever.” These ḥadiths show that an unbeliever is not the equal of a believer in matters of retaliation, and, according to most scholars, neither is a slave the equal of a free person. They are unanimously agreed that no retaliation is taken from a free man for wounds he inflicts on a slave, for the sanctity of life is greater than that of a limb.
Among the scholars of Medina it is likewise established that a free man is not executed for killing a slave, nor a Muslim for killing an unbeliever; they are all of one mind on this except Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib. However, if a Muslim murders a protected non-Muslim (dhimmī) treacherously—that is, by way of ghīla—then, according to Mālik and his companions, he is put to death for him, because they classify such a killing as ḥirāba (armed banditry): killing for the victim’s property is tantamount to the highway robber who waylays travelers.
A free man is not executed for killing his own slave or another person’s slave. By contrast, a male slave is executed for killing a male or female slave, and a female slave is executed for killing a female or male slave. In this regard, an umm walad (a slave-concubine who has borne her master a child), a mukātab (a slave under a contract of manumission), and a mudabbar (a slave promised freedom upon the master’s death) are treated exactly like ordinary slaves: retaliation applies between them for both life and bodily injury.
Intentional homicide is defined as every act by which a person deliberately assaults another, intending to kill him: striking with iron, stone, wood, or anything else customarily used for killing—even so much as a slap or a punch—when it is done out of anger, malice, or enmity. All of this counts as intentional murder and entails retaliation according to Mālik.