The Book on Blood Money

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At the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet said: ‘Whoever has a person killed, he may choose the better of two options: either pardon the killer or have him put to death.’ This is reported from Wāʾil ibn Ḥujr, Anas, and Abū Shurayḥ Khuwaylid ibn ʿAmr.

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Allah made Mecca sacred: a believer must not shed blood there or cut down its trees. He granted the Prophet an exception for one hour on the day of the conquest. The Prophet then said that Khuzāʿah had killed a man of Hudhayl, and that he was responsible for paying the blood money. The family of anyone killed after that could choose either retaliation or blood money. The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. A number of scholars, including Aḥmad and Isḥāq, held this view.

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Abū Hurayrah reported that a man was killed during the Prophet’s time. The killer was brought before the victim’s guardian and said, ‘I did not mean to kill him.’ The Prophet said, ‘If you are sincere, your own execution would take you to Hell.’ The man pardoned him. The killer had been bound with a rope; when he left, he dragged it behind him, and he was thereafter called ‘the man with the rope.’ The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ, and the rope is mentioned in the report.

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When appointing a commander over an army, the Prophet enjoined him to fear Allah and to treat the Muslims accompanying him well. He said: ‘Fight in the name of Allah and in His cause. Fight those who disbelieve in Allah. Do not steal from the spoils, betray, mutilate, or kill children.’ This is also reported from Ibn Masʿūd, Shaddād ibn Aws, ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, Anas, Samurah, al-Mughīrah, Yaʿlā ibn Murrah, and Abū Ayyūb. The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. Scholars disapproved of mutilation.

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The Prophet said: ‘Allah has prescribed excellence in all things. When you kill, kill well; and when you slaughter, slaughter well. Let each of you sharpen his blade and spare the animal suffering.’ The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. Abū al-Ashʿath al-Ṣanʿānī was named Shuraḥbīl ibn Ādah.

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Abū Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah ruled that compensation for a miscarried fetus was a male or female slave. The person liable objected, ‘Should I pay for one who neither drank, ate, nor cried out, so that its life could be established? Such a loss should be disregarded.’ The Prophet replied, ‘This man speaks like a poet; compensation is due: a male or female slave.’ The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ, and scholars act upon it. Some held that the required ghurrah could be a male or female slave, or five hundred dirhams; others said a horse or mule.

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Al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah reported that two co-wives were involved in a dispute. One struck the other with a stone or a tent pole, causing her to miscarry. The Messenger of Allah ruled that compensation for the fetus was a male or female slave, to be paid by the woman’s agnatic kin. Al-Ḥasan related a similar version through Zayd ibn Ḥubbāb from Sufyān, from Manṣūr. The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

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Abū Juḥayfah asked ʿAlī, ‘Commander of the Faithful, do you possess anything written in black on white that is not in Allah’s Book?’ He replied, ‘No, by Him who split the seed and created the soul. I know of nothing except understanding that Allah grants a person of the Qur’an, and what is in this document.’ He said it contains the blood money, the release of captives, and the rule that a believer is not killed in retaliation for an unbeliever. This is also reported from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr. The report of ʿAlī is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. This was the view of al-Thawrī, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, and Isḥāq; some scholars held that a Muslim could be killed for a person under treaty, but the first view is more sound.

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The Prophet said, ‘A Muslim is not killed in retaliation for an unbeliever.’ With the same chain, he also said, ‘The blood money for an unbeliever is half the blood money for a believer.’ Scholars differed over the blood money for Jews and Christians. Some followed what was reported from the Prophet. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz held that it was half that of a Muslim, as did Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. It is also reported that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb set it at four thousand dirhams for a Jew or Christian and eight hundred dirhams for a Magian; Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Isḥāq held this view. Others said it equaled a Muslim’s blood money; this was the view of Sufyān al-Thawrī and the scholars of Kūfah.

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The Messenger of Allah said: ‘Whoever kills his slave, We will kill him; and whoever mutilates his slave, We will mutilate him.’ This report is ḥasan gharīb. Some Successor scholars, including Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, held this view. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ held that there is no retaliation between a free person and a slave, either for a life or lesser injuries; this was also Aḥmad and Isḥāq’s view. Others said a person is not executed for killing his own slave, but is executed for killing someone else’s slave; this was the view of Sufyān al-Thawrī and the scholars of Kūfah.

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ʿUmar used to say that blood money is owed by the agnatic kin and that a wife does not inherit any of her husband’s blood money. Then al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Sufyān al-Kilābī informed him that the Messenger of Allah had written to him: ‘Give the wife of Ashyam al-Ḍibābī her share of her husband’s blood money.’ The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ, and scholars act upon it.

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A man bit another man’s hand, and when the victim pulled it away, the biter’s front teeth fell out. They brought the matter before the Prophet, who said: ‘Would one of you bite his brother as a stallion bites? There is no compensation due to you.’ Then Allah revealed: ‘Injuries are subject to retaliation.’ This is also reported from Yaʿlā ibn Umayyah and his brother Salamah. The report of ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

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The Prophet detained a man on suspicion, then released him. This is also reported from Abū Hurayrah. The report of Bahz ibn Ḥakīm, from his father, from his grandfather, is ḥasan. Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm narrated this report from Bahz in a fuller and longer version.

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The Prophet said: ‘Whoever is killed while defending his property is a martyr, and whoever takes a handspan of land unlawfully will be encircled by seven earths on the Day of Resurrection.’ Ḥātim ibn Sīyāh al-Marwazī added that Maʿmar said, ‘It reached me from al-Zuhrī; I did not hear it from him,’ referring to the wording ‘Whoever is killed while defending his property is a martyr.’ Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah narrated it from al-Zuhrī through Ṭalḥah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr ibn Sahl, and Saʿīd ibn Zayd. Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated it from al-Zuhrī through Ṭalḥah and Saʿīd ibn Zayd, omitting ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.

The Prophet said: ‘Whoever is killed while defending his property is a martyr.’ This is also reported from ʿAlī, Saʿīd ibn Zayd, Abū Hurayrah, Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, and Jābir. The report from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr is ḥasan and is narrated through more than one route. Some scholars permitted a person to fight in defense of himself and his property. Ibn al-Mubārak said he may fight to defend even two dirhams.

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The Prophet said: ‘Whoever is attacked unjustly over his property and fights back, then is killed, is a martyr.’ Sufyān praised Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah. The report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

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A report with a similar meaning was narrated from the Prophet through ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan and Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah.

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The Prophet said: ‘Whoever is killed defending his property is a martyr; whoever is killed defending his religion is a martyr; whoever is killed defending his life is a martyr; and whoever is killed defending his family is a martyr.’ The report is ḥasan. Yaʿqūb is Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf al-Zuhrī.

Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.

At Khaybar, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sahl was found murdered by Muḥayyiṣah, who buried him and returned with Ḥuwayyiṣah and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sahl to the Messenger of Allah. When the youngest, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, tried to speak first, the Prophet told him to let the elders speak. They described the killing. The Prophet asked whether they would swear fifty oaths to establish their claim and identify the killer. They replied that they had not witnessed it. He then said the Jews could clear themselves with fifty oaths, but they would not accept the oaths of disbelievers. The Messenger of Allah then paid the blood money. This report is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. Scholars apply it to qasāmah, the procedure of oaths in a homicide case. Some Medinan jurists allowed retaliation through qasāmah; some scholars of Kūfah and others held that it establishes only blood money, not retaliation. This concludes the chapters on blood money; praise be to Allah.