Qisas

[Benjamin Barrett]

There are certainly a lot more than that :)

BB

On Aug 1, 2011, at 1:33 PM, victor steinbok wrote:

>
>
> Are we all using Google differently? Mine shows a lot more than just Wiki
> and GB.
>
> http://goo.gl/tTwbD
> Executions under the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance
>
>> In accordance with a judge's interpretation of the punishment given as
>> qisas (equal punishment for the offence committed) a death sentence was t=
> o
>> have been executed in Swabi, North West Frontier Province, in a manner
>> identical with the offence.
>
>
>
> http://goo.gl/e7xEO
> Understanding the Qisas and Diyat laws
>>
>> This law dates back to General Zia=E2=80=99s Qisas and Diyat Ordinance of=
> 1980, as
>> part of a cosmetic process of Islamisation that the said dictator carried
>> out in Pakistan to legitimise his illegal rule on the touchstone of Islam=
> .
>> Zia himself had delayed the enforcement of these laws to ensure that
>> Zulfikar Ali Bhutto would not benefit from them.
>
>
> The full statement (retelling) of the law is given at the latter site.
>
> http://goo.gl/d64fO
> Crime and Punishment (QasAmah, QisAs, HadUd)
>>
>> The law also permits qisAs, or retaliation.  It is permitted only in case=
> s
>> where someone has deliberately and unjustly wounded, mutilated, or killed
>> another, and only if the injured and the guilty hold the same status.  As
>> slaves and unbelievers are inferior in status to Muslims, they are not
>> entitled to qisAs according to most Muslim faqIhs (jurists).
>
> ...
>
> QISAS
>> QisAs literally means =E2=80=9Ctracking the footsteps of an enemy=E2=80=
> =9D; but
>> technically, in Muslim law, it is retaliatory punishment, an eye for an
>> eye.  It is the lex talionis of the Mosaic law.
>> A Jew smashed the head of an ansAr girl and she died.  Muhammad commanded
>> that his head be crushed between two stones (4138).  But in another case,
>> which involved the sister of one of the Companions, bloodwite was allowed=
> .
>> She had broken someone=E2=80=99s teeth.  When the case was brought to Muh=
> ammad, he
>> told her that =E2=80=9CQisAs [retaliation] was a command prescribed in th=
> e Book of
>> Allah.=E2=80=9D She made urgent pleas and was allowed to go free after pa=
> ying a
>> money compensation to the victim=E2=80=99s next of kin (4151).
>
>
>
> VS-)
>
> On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 3:34 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrot=
> e:
>
>>
>> Google Books turns up some hits from the nineteenth century. The earliest=
> I
>> see is 1819, "The annals of the college of Fort William" by Thomas Roebuc=
> k:
>> "No. 2. An exercise on the Law of Qisas or Retaliation, extracted from th=
> e
>> Mooheeti Surukhsee" [A dot under each "s" in "Qisas," a dot under the
>> next-to-last "h" and two under the last "t."] (http://bit.ly/oI9rjZ)
>>
>> Another notable citation is from 1885 in "The cyclop=C4=99dia of India an=
> d of
>> Eastern and Southern Asia: commercial, industrial and scientific, product=
> s
>> of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, useful arts and
>> manufactures" by Edward Balfour: "Qisas, literally retaliation, the lex
>> talionis of Exodus xxi. 24; but Mahomed allowed a money compensation, at =
> the
>> discretion of the next of kin, to the murdered person." (
>> http://bit.ly/pbBbNR)
>>

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