reported to have said: “Their property is like our property and their blood is like our blood.” According to another report: “The property of the mu‘āhads is not lawful for the Muslims” (Ah. IV, p. 89).
Ḥadīth speaks of cases of murder in which the murderer’s intention is doubtful and, in these cases too, blood-money is to be paid.5 And where the murderer could not be discovered, blood-money was paid from the state treasury.6 There does not appear to be any reported case in which the murderer may have been imprisoned in case of unintentional murder, but the alleviation of punishment in such cases is clearly provided for in the Holy Qur’ān. The form of alleviation spoken of in the Holy Book is the payment of blood-money, but the right of the state to give that alleviation any other form is not negatived.
Another crime for which capital punishment may be awarded is dacoity. In the Holy Qur’ān, dacoity is spoken of as waging war against God and His Apostle: “The only punishment of those who wage war against Allāh and His Messenger and strive to make mischief (fasād) in the land is, that they should be put to death or crucified, or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides,7 or they should be imprisoned;8 this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world and in the Hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement” (5:33). It has been accepted by the commentators, by a consensus of opinion, that dacoits and murderers who create disorder in a settled state of society are referred to in this verse. The punishment prescribed is of four kinds, which shows that the punishment to be inflicted in any particular case would depend upon the circumstances of the case. If murder has been committed in the course of dacoity, the punishment would be the execution of the culprit, which may take the form of crucifixion if the offence is so heinous or the culprit has caused such terror in the land that the leaving of his body on the cross is necessary as a deterrent. Where the dacoits have committed excesses, one of their hands and feet may be cut off. In less serious
5 AD. 38:18; Ah. II, p. 36.
6 Bu. 88:22.
7 The original words for “on opposite sides” are min khilāf, which might as well mean on account of opposition, referring to their creation of mischief in the land, while God and His Apostle want to establish peace in which the life and property of every man shall be secure. The word khilāf originally means opposition.
8 The Arabic words are yunfau min-al-ardz and nafā-hu means he drove away or expelled or banished him (LL). Therefore the words may mean either transportation or imprisonment, because in imprisonment, too, a man is banished from his usual place of habitation. Both Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and Aḥmad take the words here as meaning imprisonment.