he must pay the full blood money due for a free person and may then retrieve the slave. If, once the qasāmah has been completed, the heirs choose to execute the slave, they have a stronger claim to do so than his owner, even should the owner offer payment of the diyah.
If several people strike a man and wound him, and the wound inflicted by one of them reaches a vital organ while the others’ wounds do not, the heirs may conduct the qasāmah only against the one whose blow proved fatal. They may not demand oaths from anyone whose injury neither weakened the victim nor reached a vital organ, and in all events they may direct their oaths against only a single individual.
When the heirs differ in their allegation—some insisting that the killing was intentional and others that it was accidental—all must swear to the fact of the killing; the diyah becomes due to them, and retaliation is canceled. If some claim intentional homicide while others say, “We have no knowledge of the matter,” none of them may swear, and the oaths revert to the defendants. Should some allege accidental killing while others disclaim knowledge, those who allege accident must swear fifty decisive oaths (not merely oaths based on knowledge) and thereby obtain their shares of the diyah.
In cases of deliberate murder, no woman—whether a daughter of the deceased or any other female heir—may take part in the qasāmah. In accidental homicide, however, a single man or a single woman, or more, may participate. The oaths are divided among them in proportion to their shares of inheritance: whoever inherits one-eighth must swear one-eighth of the fifty oaths, whoever inherits one-sixth swears one-sixth, and so on. This rule is constant. If someone’s share amounts to a fraction of an oath, the number is rounded up so that a full oath is assigned to him.
If the defendants are several persons, the diyah is split equally among them by headcount, and each defendant’s portion is borne by his ʿāqilah, that is, his nearest male agnates in order of closeness; if he has no such relatives, the liability falls upon the Muslim public treasury.