Security of life in Islam

الحرية في الدماء

Muhammad al-Khidr Husayn treats the sanctity of life as part of freedom. He likens the community to one body, so that shedding one person's blood is like opening a vein, and retaliation (qisas) is like a physician's lancet that stops corrupt blood from spreading to the other limbs (p. 91). He says qisas stops people shedding blood and saves the life of someone who might otherwise be killed in a feud, and that the rules were built on caution so that wrongdoers find no pretext to waste blood (pp. 91-92). He reports that the Companions agreed to execute a group for one killing, and that Umar executed seven men of Sana'a for one (p. 92). For deliberate killing the blood money is taken from the killer's property, and for accidental killing the kin bear it as relief for the victims' family, not as punishment for another's fault (p. 93).