and We made the day a time for livelihood” (al-Nabaʾ 10–11). Or it may be legislative, as in His saying: “Allah has not instituted any bahīrah, sāʾibah, waṣīlah, or hām” (al-Māʾidah 103). “Has not instituted” means He has not legislated them; cosmically they do exist, for the pre-Islamic Arabs practiced them. In the same way, the wording of the ḥadīth, “I have made it forbidden among you,” refers to a legislative, not a cosmic, decree, for oppression does in fact occur.

His words, “I have made it forbidden among you,” indicate that oppression between people concerns three matters that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ clarified while addressing the people during the Farewell Pilgrimage: “Your blood, your property, and your honor are sacred to you, like the sanctity of this day of yours, in this month of yours, in this city of yours. Have I conveyed the message?” They replied, “Yes.” He said, “O Allah, bear witness.” Thus the three matters are blood, property, and honor.

Oppression among human beings is therefore unlawful with respect to blood. No one may infringe upon another’s blood—whether blood whose loss causes death, namely killing, or blood whose loss brings impairment, such as that of wounds, broken bones, and the like. All of this is forbidden and impermissible.

And know that breaking the bone of a corpse is the same as breaking it while he is alive, as has been reported from the Prophet ﷺ. The deceased is inviolable; it is not permissible to remove any of his limbs.