Back to search

Does the judge pay the blood money for accidental killing if he rules to execute an innocent person and then his innocence is proven, and is the death of an unmarried fornicator due to lashing considered accidental killing, and who bears the responsibility for his blood money?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If an execution ruling is found to be erroneous after its implementation, there are several scenarios: 1. The judge deliberately commits injustice and oppression: If the judge knew the witnesses were lying or acknowledged their oppression, he is to be punished, dismissed, and held liable from his own wealth. 2. The judge's error contravenes definitive evidence: If the judge contravenes a definitive text from the Qur'an, Sunnah, or scholarly consensus, he is held liable because it is destruction caused by his action. 3. Acting upon lawful evidence, then the witness's disbelief or فسق (transgression) becomes apparent: The guarantors of the witnesses are liable for their negligence. If there are no guarantors, the judge is liable for his shortcoming, and the blood money is to be paid from the public treasury (بيت المال) or by his 'Aqilah (male agnatic relatives). 4. The judge rules based on lawful evidence, then the witnesses retract their testimony: There is no liability on the judge. The witnesses are liable for blood money or Qisas (retribution). If they deliberately bore false witness to cause murder, then Qisas applies to them. If they admit to deliberately bearing witness but did not know it would lead to killing, then severe blood money is due. If they made a mistake, then light blood money is due. The liability is distributed among them based on their number.

As for someone who dies during the implementation of a lawful hadd (prescribed punishment) without any excess, their blood is considered to have been spilled lawfully (hadar), and no one is liable. However, if there was an excess beyond the legal hadd, and death resulted from it, then liability is incurred.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy