القصاص
al-Qiṣāṣ
Topic
The retributive and compensatory punishment prescribed for homicide and for injury to a person.
What it means
Al-Qiṣāṣ is the law of equal retribution for killing and for bodily injury. It allows the victim or the family of the victim to demand a penalty equal to the harm done, and it also allows them to forgive the offender or to accept compensation instead. The compensation for a life or an injury is called diya. The Quran prescribes it for the killed (2:178) and says that in qiṣāṣ there is life for people of understanding (2:179). It also lists the principle of a life for a life and like for like in wounds, and calls forgiveness an act of charity that wipes away sins for the one who forgives (5:45).
Often misunderstood as
That it is only vengeance, when it limits the response to the harm done and invites forgiveness.
What the sources say
The jurists treat qiṣāṣ as a right of the injured party, and the state carries out the judgment after the court has proved the case. The Quran puts forgiveness above retribution, and a judge may not impose it where the family has pardoned.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 53, listed as AL QIṢĀṢ. The definition is restated here.