Qisās

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Qisās ( Arabic قصاص, DMG qiṣāṣ ) describes the principle of retaliation in Islamic law ( Sharia ). It can be used for killing a person and for non-fatal wounding. The term qisas is synonymous with qawad .

history

Blood revenge was widespread among the Arabs in the time of Muhammad . The Islamic retaliation leads the blood revenge in certain, regulated channels, in the sense of the Old Testament eye for eye . In the Koran the exact retribution is presupposed as a divine arrangement:

You believers! In the case of manslaughter, retaliation ( al-qiṣāṣ ) is prescribed for you: a free for a free, a slave for a slave and a female for a female. And if someone (who has committed a manslaughter) is slacked off on the part of his brother (who is responsible for the exercise of retaliation), the recovery (of the blood money by the avenger) should be carried out in a legal manner and (vice versa) the payment to him in an orderly manner become. This is a relief and mercy on the part of your Lord (compared to the earlier handling of blood revenge). But if someone, after this regulation has been made, commits a violation (by adhering to the earlier custom of blood feuds), he (in the hereafter) has to expect a painful punishment. ( Sura 2 , verse 178 after Paret )

The Medina parish ordinance stipulated that a believer was prohibited from killing a believer for killing a non-believer. The Prophet Mohammed personally intervened in the handling of the Qisā several times . He paid the atonement ( diya ) for pagans who had a contractual relationship with him and were murdered by Muslims. He also twice forced the acceptance of atonement or had murderers executed in aggravating circumstances without granting the avenger the possibility of atonement.

According to the tradition of Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad redeemed all blood guilt when he conquered Mecca.

present

Even today, the principle of retribution still plays a major role in Islamic jurisprudence; For example, as part of the stricter punishment of violence against women (e.g. through acid attacks ), Islamic judges have repeatedly imposed retaliatory sentences in recent decades, but mostly not carried out.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Joseph Schacht: Kisas . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam , Leiden 1980
  2. Ibn Ishaq: The Life of the Prophet . From the Arabic by Gernot Rotter . Kandern 2004, p. 223