But if some of the heirs of a man killed by mistake are absent while others are present, and the one who is present wishes to press his claim, nothing becomes due to him until he has sworn fifty decisive oaths—whether he is alone or accompanied by others—after which he may take his allotted share. Every co-heir who later appears must likewise swear a number of oaths proportionate to his inheritance share, whether one-half, one-third, one-sixth, or any other fraction, for the blood-liability was already established by the first qasamah. If a fractional oath falls to him, he must complete a full oath, unless another heir shares that fraction with him, in which case the remainder is added to the heir who already bears more than one oath. It is also said that each heir, in any event, must perform all fifty oaths himself.
No adherent of any religion other than Islam may invoke the qasamah, and with regard to wounds there is no qasamah unless the injury results in death. Likewise, there is neither qasamah nor diyah for one who is trampled to death in a crowd, found dead in a quarter of the town, or discovered slain at the doorway of a household.
If two factions fight and then separate leaving a dead man, Mālik held two opinions. The first is that retaliation does not apply; the diyah is owed by the faction that fought him if he belonged to the other faction, and if he belonged to neither, the diyah is shared between them. The second opinion is that finding him slain between the two factions constitutes presumptive evidence that obliges the qasamah in favor of his heirs: they swear against the party they accuse, execute the killer, and those upon whom the oaths fall are brought to the provincial capital to swear in its principal congregational mosque, provided they live within roughly ten miles. If they dwell farther away, they are not brought in; instead, they swear in their own congregational mosques immediately after the prayers, in full view of the people at the pulpit—except for those from the districts of Mecca, Medina, and Bayt