Chapter: The Diyah for Wounds

According to Malik and his companions, no fixed diyah and no specified arsh (partial compensation) is due for any wound that falls short of a muḍiḥa—one that exposes the bone. A muḍiḥa, like every category of shijaj (head and facial injuries), occurs only in the face or head, as the lexicographers affirm; what occurs on the rest of the body is simply called jurūḥ (wounds), not shijaj.

The first of the shijaj is the ḥāriṣa: it lightly splits the skin without blood flowing. From this usage comes the saying, “ḥaraṣa the launderer the garment,” when he gives it a slight tear. Next is the dāmiyah, in which blood appears but does not flow; then the dāmiʿah, whose blood drips the way tears do. After that is the bāḍiʿah, which cuts into the flesh but does not reach the bone, nor the delicate membrane that the samḥāq reaches. Then comes the samḥāq—also called the malṭāʾ, whether with a long or short vowel—which leaves nothing between it and the bone save a thin membrane; that very membrane is the samḥāq, from which the wound takes its name. When the wound goes beyond this membrane, pierces it, and exposes the bone, it is deemed a muḍiḥa.

The mutalāḥima is any wound or shajjah that heals together with the clotting of blood. In all the shijaj mentioned above, when they are inflicted unintentionally, the amount of compensation is left to judicial discretion.