Reason as the basis of legal capacity and of the blood-money (aql)

العَقْل

In the lexicon, aql is restraint and reason, the opposite of folly; it is also used for blood-money. As a term it is the power prepared to receive knowledge ¹. The jurists agree that reason is the basis of legal obligation: acts of worship are not owed by the insane or anyone without reason, on the prophetic instruction that the pen is lifted from three ^{1 2}. Those without reason cannot validly make property transactions, contracts or dissolutions of marriage, and their statements do not bind them or others; they lose their guardianship, though some acts with them are taken into account, such as destruction of property and nursing a child ². Loss of reason by madness, fainting or intoxication breaks ablution ². No retaliation is due for a blow that removes reason, but blood-money is due for its loss through injury ^{2 3}.