Britannica Sources used in this answer

How does Islamic law treat murder differently from certain fixed crimes punishable by death?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Padded gurney with black restraints and IV stands, used for lethal injection, sits in a bare room with white cinder block walls at the New Mexico state penitentiary. — capital punishment Lethal-injection room.

In traditional Shari'ah, murder is treated fundamentally differently from hadd crimes, which are offenses with fixed, unalterable punishments mandated by religious law.123

While hadd crimes—such as apostasy or certain sexual offenses—carry specific, mandatory penalties like death or corporal punishment, murder is categorized as a civil injury rather than a crime against the state. It is viewed as a dispute between families or tribal groups. Consequently, the right to prosecute lies with the victim’s kin rather than the state.124

The victim's family holds the authority to choose between three outcomes:
* Retaliation (qisas): The offender may be subjected to the same treatment as the victim.1
* Compensation (diyah): The family may accept "blood money" in place of retaliation.14
* Pardon: The family may choose to forgive the offender.1

This distinction reflects the belief that the life of an individual is tied to their group, allowing for private settlement rather than the rigid, state-enforced penalties applied to hadd offenses.4