Question

What is the penalty prescribed by the Sharia’h for accidently hitting and killing a person in road accidents?

Answer

What follows is the related part of Mr Ghamidi’s Mizan. In these passages he has described the Shari’ah law regarding unintentionally killing a person. Traffic accidents and resultant are a form of such killings.

“The Qur’anic penalty law regarding unintentional killing can be summarized as follows:

If the murdered person is a Muslim citizen of a Muslim State or if he is not a Muslim but belongs to a nation with which a treaty has been concluded, it is necessary for the murderer who has not been forgiven to pay diyat to atone for his sin and repent before the Almighty and free a Muslim slave as well.

If the murdered person is a Muslim and belongs to an enemy country, the murderer is not required to pay diyat; in this case, it is enough that he only free a Muslim slave.

Thirdly, in both these cases, if the criminal does not have a slave, he should consecutively fast for two months.

Since there is option to free a slave today, Muslim or non-Muslim, we need to follow the state laws the fines and then pray to the Almighty for forgiveness and fast fro two months consecutively.” (Mizan, The Penal Law)

Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi

Date: 2015-01-13