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Hadr (blood and value wasted: no retaliation, no compensation)

هَدْر

Hadr means waste or nullity; as a technical term, a hadr soul is one for which there is neither retaliation, diya nor expiation. 1 The principle is that a human life is protected, but an apostate is an exception agreed by the jurists: the imam or his deputy executes him, and if someone other than the imam kills him without authorisation there is no retaliation or diya, though he is disciplined (ta'zir). 2 The blood of a heretic whose innovation is takfiri is also wasted, and so is that of a belligerent non-Muslim; non-combatants such as women, children, the old, and monks may not be killed. 3 The blood of a married adulterer is wasted in the view of most jurists; the Hanafis require that the killing follow a judgment. 3 4 Where a wounded person's status changed between protected and wasted before death, the majority hold the earlier wound unliable, while Ibn al-Qasim (Maliki) holds a diya due. 4 5 If a Muslim shot a hadr person who then converted before the arrow struck, the majority hold no retaliation is due, while the Shafi'is hold, in the sounder view, a lighter diya paid by the kin. 5 6 For the Shafi'is the retaliation is claimed by the Muslim next of kin; for the Hanbalis it is the imam who executes. 7 A person whose blood is wasted need not be given water he needs, and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis permit a compelled person to kill such a person to save his own life if no other food is found. 7 8 One whose blood was wasted by a crime who kills himself gets no expiation from that act, since he has no right to spill his own blood. 8

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Arabia
Review
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Crime and punishmentLaw and courtsSects and schoolsDissent, heresy and freethought

Summary

Hadr means waste or nullity. A hadr soul is one for which there is neither retaliation, diya nor expiation. 1

Who may be killed with impunity

A human life is protected in principle. The apostate's blood is wasted by agreement: the imam or his deputy executes him, and anyone else who kills him without authority owes neither retaliation nor diya, though he is disciplined. 2 The blood of a heretic whose innovation is takfiri is wasted, and so is that of a belligerent non-Muslim. Non-combatants such as women, children, the old and monks may not be killed. 3 Most jurists hold the blood of a married adulterer wasted; the Hanafis require that the killing follow a judgment. 3 4

A change in the wounded person's status

If someone was wounded and his status changed between protected and wasted before he died, most jurists hold the earlier wound unliable; Ibn al-Qasim of the Malikis holds a diya due. 4 5 If a Muslim shot a hadr person who converted before the arrow struck, the majority hold no retaliation is due; the Shafi'is hold, in the sounder view, a lighter diya paid by the kin. 5 6

Execution, water and self-killing

For the Shafi'is the retaliation is claimed by the Muslim next of kin; for the Hanbalis it is the imam who executes. 7 A hadr person need not be given water he needs, and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis permit a compelled person to kill him to save his own life when no other food is found. 7 8 One whose blood was wasted by a crime who kills himself gets no expiation from that act. 8

Connections

Explore the connections

Related to
Hujna (hybridness, in the fiqh sense: spoils shares and speech)· Hudna (truce with non-Muslims)

People and things also explored

Al-hajna — the stigma of mixed lineage· Habs (imprisonment and detention)· Hashima (a head wound that breaks the bone: its compensation)· Hawa (desire, and the duty to resist it)· Hazl (jest in speech, and its effect on contracts, acts and belief)· Hija' (satire and insult in verse: its rules)· Hudna (truce with non-Muslims)· Hujna (hybridness, in the fiqh sense: spoils shares and speech)

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.16451
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.16452
  3. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.16453
  4. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.16454
  5. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.16455
  6. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.16456
  7. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.16457
  8. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.16458
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Hadr (blood and value wasted: no retaliation, no compensation)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/hadr-fiqh/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Al-hajna — the stigma of mixed lineage

Al-hajna, the Arab stigma of impure lineage: Lisan al-Arab defines it as speech that disgraces you, the hajin being an Arab son of a slave-mother — 'for he is marked'. Ibn Abd Rabbih reports the Umayyads would not appoint the sons of slave-mothers, saying the Arabs do not fit them; al-Asma'i explained it astrologically — they saw their rule ending at a slave-mother's son's hands — but Ahmad Amin favours the popular explanation of sheer disdain. A Bedouin asking the qadi Suwar about his inheritance grew furious when told the hajin shared equally; Khalid al-Qasri, governor of Iraq, was lampooned because his mother was a Greek slave.