Back to search

Is the verse "And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally" abrogated or specific, and does repentance forgive murder despite its conditions, and how can it be understood that the hadiths about killing are taken to mean intensification despite their explicitness?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Unjustly killing a Muslim is one of the gravest sins. Allah has threatened the intentional killer with Hellfire and eternal damnation therein, along with wrath, curse, and a great torment. This ruling is not abrogated; rather, it is conditional upon the killer not repenting. The أهل السنة والجماعة (People of the Sunnah and the Community) unanimously agree that perpetrators of major sins will not remain eternally in Hellfire if they die as monotheists. The repentance of a killer is accepted, and if he repents, Allah will forgive him. Texts have indicated the acceptance of repentance from one who has killed a soul unjustly, provided it is a sincere repentance. The killer has two rights: a right pertaining to Allah and a right pertaining to human beings (the guardians of the victim's blood). As for Allah's right, it is waived by sincere repentance. As for the right of the guardians of the victim's blood, they must be enabled to exercise qisas (retaliation), or reconciliation, or to seek forgiveness. As for the right of the murdered person, Allah will compensate him for it on the Day of Resurrection.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy