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One-eyed defect ('awar) and its effect on sacrifice, marriage, manumission and injury

العَوَر

'Awar is the loss of sight in one eye; the jurists use the word in its plain sense 1. It is distinguished from 'asha, night blindness, from 'amash, weak sight with a watering eye, from hawal, squint, and from 'ama, blindness of both eyes 2. A one-eyed animal is not valid for sacrifice where the eye is gone, though the Hanafis allow it where the eye is only white and still sees 2 3. Defect of one eye gives no option to annul the marriage unless one spouse stipulated soundness 3. A one-eyed slave may be freed in expiation, by the majority 4. For injury to a sound-eyed person by a one-eyed man, the rulings differ: the Hanafis and Shafi'is require a full blood-money, the Hanbalis require half, and the Malikis give the victim a choice 4 5. The Hanafis and Shafi'is allow retaliation on the sound eye of a person who blinds a one-eyed man's only sound eye, while the Malikis give the choice between retaliation and blood-money 5.

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The Prophetic Era
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Global / Diaspora
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Summary

'Awar is the loss of sight in one eye; the jurists use the word in its plain sense 1. It is distinguished from 'asha, night blindness, from 'amash, weak sight with a watering eye, from hawal, squint, and from 'ama, blindness of both eyes 2. A one-eyed animal is not valid for sacrifice where the eye is gone, though the Hanafis allow it where the eye is only white and still sees 2 3. Defect of one eye gives no option to annul the marriage unless one spouse stipulated soundness 3. A one-eyed slave may be freed in expiation, by the majority 4. For injury to a sound-eyed person by a one-eyed man, the rulings differ: the Hanafis and Shafi'is require a full blood-money, the Hanbalis require half, and the Malikis give the victim a choice 4 5. The Hanafis and Shafi'is allow retaliation on the sound eye of a person who blinds a one-eyed man's only sound eye, while the Malikis give the choice between retaliation and blood-money 5.

People and things also explored

The mute person (abkam) in fiqh· Bone (adhm): purity, use and retaliation· Fleshy growth in the wife's womb and the right to annul (afal)· Grief and worry (al-huzn)· The clot stage of the embryo (alaqa) and the rulings on its loss· Alsagh (one with a speech defect, and its rulings)· Alya (the rump, and its rulings)· Blindness (ama): capacity, worship, testimony and contract

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.11908
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.11909
  3. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.11910
  4. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.11911
  5. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.11912
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “One-eyed defect ('awar) and its effect on sacrifice, marriage, manumission and injury”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/awar-one-eyed/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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The mute person (abkam) in fiqh

The Kuwaiti encyclopedia defines the mute person (abkam) as one who has the condition of dumbness, which is the absence of speech. Lexicographers distinguish the abkam, who has speech but cannot give an answer, from the akhras, one born unable to speak; the jurists in their usage do not distinguish between them. Since the mute lacks the means of expression by the tongue, the Encyclopedia says he is held to intention and to moving the tongue, or murmuring, in acts of worship such as prayer, reciting the Qur'an and the talbiya; the Malikis accept intention alone. In other matters he must express himself in writing, if he writes well, and otherwise by an intelligible sign, as in sales, transactions and testimony. In hudud punishments his confession against himself and his testimony against others are not accepted, because a doubt averts such punishments.