Tadhfif (finishing off a wounded person)

Tadhfif is finishing off a wounded person to kill him, and its rule varies with the setting. ¹

In the language, tadhfif is finishing off a wounded man, and some say hastening his death. The jurists do not depart from this sense. ¹

It is allowed to finish off wounded unbelievers on the field, since leaving them alive harms the Muslims and strengthens the unbelievers. The details are in the entry on jihad. ¹

If the rebels have a group to fall back on, the Hanafis allow killing their fleeing commander and finishing off their wounded, so that they do not rejoin the group and stir strife again. Where there is no such group, killing their wounded is forbidden. They cite Ali's words at the Battle of the Camel: do not pursue the fleeing, do not finish off the wounded, do not kill prisoners. ^{1 2} The Malikis depend on whether the imam is sure that the rebels have joined the rebellion or returned to obedience. If he is sure of their rebellion, he may pursue and finish off the wounded as the interest of the fight requires; they do not require a group to exist. ² The Shafi'is hold that if the rebels have a distant group that is not expected to come, the wounded are not finished off; if a group is near and the fight continues, pursuit and finishing off are allowed. ² The Hanbalis hold that when the rebels stop fighting, by returning to obedience, laying down arms, fleeing to a group or otherwise, their wounded are not finished off, since the fight against them is to repel them back to obedience and not to kill. They cite Ali's words and a hadith of Ibn Mas'ud on God's ruling for the rebels of this community; al-Bayhaqi and al-Dhahabi found weaknesses in that hadith. ^{2 3}

When one shoots game and then finds it with a steady life, it is lawful only by proper slaughter. If one reaches it with nothing left but the movement of a slaughtered animal, most jurists hold it lawful even without finishing it off, since they do not count that movement as life. The report of Abu Hanifa (as given by al-Jassas) is that it is not lawful until it is finished off; the sounder report is that he agrees with the majority. ³ The details belong to the entries on hunting and slaughter. ³