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A Woman Has Half A Man’s Diyat
Diyat means a fine a murderer has to pay the family of the murdered person in case he or she is granted pardon. It is believed that if a lady is murdered the fine that would be given to her relatives would be half the amount of what would have been given in case a man had been murdered.
Consider now the verse of the Quran which mentions this issue:
فَمَنْ عُفِيَ لَهُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ شَيْءٌ فَاتِّبَاعٌ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَأَدَاءٌ إِلَيْهِ بِإِحْسَانٍ (178:2)
Then for whom there has been some pardon from his brother, [the remission] should be followed according to the maruf and diyat should be paid with goodness. (2:178)
It is evident from this verse that the diyat should be paid according to the ma‘rūf of a society. Ma‘rūf means the customs and conventions of a society.
In the times of the Prophet (sws), the ma‘rūf of the Arab society was that the diyat of a woman was half that of a man. So while following the directive of the Quran regarding diyat, the Prophet (sws) enforced the ma‘rūf of his society.
The ma‘rūf of different societies may be different and therefore the ma‘rūf of each society should be followed. In other words, Islam has not obligated Muslims to discriminate in this matter between a man or a woman, a slave or a free man and a Muslim or a non-Muslim. It wants them to follow the ma‘rūf of our society. Scholars have erroneously enforced the ma‘rūf of the Arab society of the times of the Prophet (sws). Since then, the wheel of fortune has revolved through fourteen more centuries and the tide of time has sped past innumerable crests and falls. Social conditions and cultural traditions have undergone a drastic change.
As per this Quranic directive, every society is to obey its custom, and since in our own society no law about diyat exists, those at the helm of affairs of our state can re-legislate in this regard.
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A Woman Has Half A Man’s Diyat
updated 4 years, 4 months ago
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