The word · Law & life
قِصاص
Qisas
Equal retaliation for murder or injury, which the victim's family may always waive for compensation.
Also written · Qasas · Qisaas · Kisas · Qisas law · Qissas · retaliation · retribution · equal retaliation · an eye for an eye · lex talionis
The meaning
What Qisas means in Islam
The Qur'an calls it life for you, meaning that a known and strictly limited penalty restrains the endless blood feuds it replaced. It requires a court, proof and deliberate intent, and it is never a private act of revenge. The Qur'an then urges pardon and calls forgiving it an expiation for the one who forgives, and the family may accept diyah or waive everything, which classical practice treated as the better road.
Evidence · Qur’an · Stated directly in the Qur’an
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- DiyahBlood money: compensation paid to a victim's family for a killing or an injury.دِيَة
- HududThe small set of fixed penalties named in revelation, hedged about with very strict proof.حُدود
- Ta'zirDiscretionary punishment, set by a judge for offences that carry no fixed penalty.تَعْزير
- QadiA judge in an Islamic court, whose ruling binds, unlike a mufti's opinion.قاضٍ
More from Law & life
- 'AqdA contract: a binding agreement formed by an offer and its acceptance.عَقْد
- FardObligatory: required by decisive evidence, and sinful to abandon without an excuse.فَرْض
- HijabThe covering a Muslim woman wears in public, most often a headscarf with modest clothing.حِجاب
- MahrThe gift of money or property the groom owes the bride, which belongs to her alone.مَهْر
- MurabahahA sale at a disclosed cost plus markup, widely used in Islamic banking in place of lending.مُرابَحة
- RukhsahA concession: permission to do the easier thing when a recognised excuse applies.رُخْصة