and to act upon the words of Allah: “and their affairs are [decided] by mutual consultation among them” (Q 42:38).

So when this woman miscarried an incomplete, lifeless fetus, the amount of its diyah was unclear to ʿUmar, and he consulted the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—about it. Al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah told him that he had witnessed the Prophet ﷺ rule that the diyah for such a fetus is a ghurra: one male or female slave. Wanting to make absolutely certain of a ruling that would remain binding on the community until the Day of Resurrection, ʿUmar asked al-Mughīrah to bring someone to testify to the accuracy of his report. Muḥammad ibn Maslamah al-Anṣārī then bore witness to its truth. May Allah be pleased with them all.

Lessons derived from the hadith

1. If a fetus is expelled dead because of an assault, its diyah is a ghurra: a male or female slave. If it is born alive and then dies as a result of the assault, a full diyah is due.
2. The importance of consulting people of knowledge and sound judgment in major and novel matters, so that the truth may be reached.
3. The need to verify issues and ensure the reliability of reports; nonetheless, a solitary report suffices when its transmitter is upright and precise.
4. Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd said: “This shows that specialized knowledge can be hidden from leading scholars yet known to those beneath them. It answers those extremist imitators who, when cited a hadith, say, ‘If it were authentic, So-and-so would have known it.’ If something could be hidden from the foremost Companions, it is even more likely to be hidden from others.”
5. The hadith proves that there is no room for independent reasoning when a clear text exists. ʿUmar merely wished to stimulate the Companions and hear their views; once they learned of the textual evidence, they ignored everything else—a well-known principle.

Hadith 8
Abu Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—reported: Two women from Hudhayl fought, and one of them threw a stone at the other, killing her and what was in her womb. They brought the case to the Prophet ﷺ. He ruled that the diyah for her fetus was a ghurra: one male or female slave, and that the diyah for the woman was to be paid by her ʿāqilah (the paternal relatives who bear the blood-money). He also decreed that her children and their allies should inherit from her.

Ḥamal ibn al-Nābighah al-Hudhalī then stood and said, “Messenger of Allah, how can I be liable for someone who neither drank nor ate, who neither spoke nor cried? Should such a being’s blood-money simply be lost?”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “He is one of the brothers of the soothsayers,” because of the rhymed prose (sajʿ) he had used.