Chapter: Accidental Homicide and the Persons upon Whom Blood-Money and Expiation Fall

Anything that issues from a person without deliberate intent or conscious will is deemed accidental. The forms of accident are extremely numerous: a light shove, wrestling, or a blow that ordinarily causes little pain; a man shooting at a target and striking a passer-by; launching a catapult at idolaters and the projectile hitting a Muslim; disciplining one’s wife or another individual whom one is normally permitted to correct without harm; mishaps that occur during play; the acts of the insane, the feebleminded, and a child until he reaches puberty; malpractice on the part of a physician or a circumciser who are otherwise known for their skill; and what results from a sleeper’s movement, such as a woman who rolls over onto her infant and kills him. Everything of this sort is classed as accidental.

In all such cases the blood-money (diya) is borne by the killer’s ʿāqilah—that is, his male paternal relatives, among whom he himself is counted. As for the killer personally, he must emancipate a slave if he is able; if not, he must fast two consecutive months.

A woman’s husband, her children, and her maternal half-siblings are not included among her ʿāqilah. Only free, adult males of the ʿāqilah contribute; females and minors do not. Whoever employs a free boy in some hazardous affair and the boy dies as a result is liable for the boy’s diya, which is then paid by the employer’s ʿāqilah.

The ʿāqilah do not assume any accidental liability that is less than one-third of the full diya; once the amount reaches one-third or more, it is collected from them over three years—two-thirds within two years and the remaining third in one year. If the amount equals one-half or three-quarters of the diya, there are two opinions: one holds that it is spread over two years; the other leaves the matter to the judge’s discretion.

Each member of the ʿāqilah is assessed according to his means in a way that does not impose undue hardship, ranging from a single dirham to one hundred or even one thousand, proportional to his wealth or poverty. Mālik set no fixed upper or lower limit; the principle is simply that the payment be manageable.