Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 178 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:178

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْقِصَاصُ فِى ٱلْقَتْلَى ۖ ٱلْحُرُّ بِٱلْحُرِّ وَٱلْعَبْدُ بِٱلْعَبْدِ وَٱلْأُنثَىٰ بِٱلْأُنثَىٰ ۚ فَمَنْ عُفِىَ لَهُۥ مِنْ أَخِيهِ شَىْءٌ فَٱتِّبَاعٌۢ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَأَدَآءٌ إِلَيْهِ بِإِحْسَـٰنٍ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ تَخْفِيفٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ ۗ فَمَنِ ٱعْتَدَىٰ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَهُۥ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

“O you who have believed, prescribed for you is legal retribution for those murdered - the free for the free, the slave for the slave, and the female for the female.[61] But whoever overlooks from his brother [i.e., the killer] anything,[62] then there should be a suitable follow-up and payment to him [i.e., the deceased's heir or legal representative] with good conduct. This is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy. But whoever transgresses after that[63] will have a painful punishment.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah limits retribution to the one who did the wrong, still calls him 'brother', and opens a door to pardon as a mercy.

A reflection

Only the footprints of the one who did it

A young man is stabbed outside a takeaway. The attacker is arrested within the hour. That night the victim's cousins set fire to the attacker's family's car, with his little sister asleep upstairs. Nobody in that house had held the knife.

The commentators describe the world this ayah entered. Two Arab tribes had fought before Islam. The stronger one swore it would not be satisfied with less than a free man for each of its slaves. For each of its women, it wanted a man. An early commentator calls such fighting blind tribal rage. Another report describes two tribes in Madinah whose blood was priced unequally: one tribe's dead were worth twice the other's.

Into that, the ayah lays down qiṣāṣ. The root means following a track, step by step. One lexicon explains the name. The offender receives what he did, as though his own footprints were followed back to him. The response goes where the deed went, and stops where it stopped.

An early commentator spells out the heart of the command. What is prescribed is that you not go beyond the killer to anyone else. To kill someone other than the killer is forbidden.

A reader may worry that 'the free for the free… the female for the female' ranks human worth. The commentators read it the other way: it was aimed at tribes that demanded more than the killer. They cite the Prophet's ﷺ statement that the lives of Muslims are equal in value (Abu Dawud; graded ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ). The detailed rulings belong to the scholars of law.

The principle is plain enough for anyone: punish the hand that did it, and no other.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.