Offending Heaven and Earth: Sin and Expiation in Islamic Homicide Law
Abstract The Qur'ān clearly condemns homicide and assigns the freeing of a slave to any who kill accidentally. Classical fiqh manuals, however, display a remarkable range of responses to and disagreements about this dictate. Many jurists hold that freeing a slave here is an instance of kaffāra...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2007
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| In: |
Islamic law and society
Year: 2007, Volume: 14, Issue: 1, Pages: 42-80 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Abstract The Qur'ān clearly condemns homicide and assigns the freeing of a slave to any who kill accidentally. Classical fiqh manuals, however, display a remarkable range of responses to and disagreements about this dictate. Many jurists hold that freeing a slave here is an instance of kaffāra (expiation), understood as an antidote to sin. Yet accidental homicide is widely deemed non-sinful, so kaffāra is assigned for a non-sin. Further, many say the sin of intentional homicide cannot be expiated. Hanafīs often add the idiosyncratic assertion that freeing a slave is not kaffāra but rather an instance of "thanking the benefactor," an altogether different kind of act. I conclude that freeing a slave in response to homicide is not consistently treated as the expiation of sin. Further, the jurists' treatment of kaffāra forces a reconsideration of the commonplace assertion that Islamic law treats murder as more tort than crime. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5195 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Islamic law and society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/156851907780323825 |
