Fines Meaning

FINES. Arabic Diyah (دية‎). A term which, in its strictest sense, means a sum exacted for any offence upon the person, in consideration for the claim of qiṣāṣ, or retaliation, not being insisted upon. (This does not apply to wilful murder.) A full and complete fine is that levied upon a person for manslaughter, which consists of either one hundred female camels or ten thousand dirhams (silver), or one thousand dīnārs (gold).

The fine for slaying a woman is half that for slaying a man, “because the rank of a woman is lower than that of a man, so also her faculties and uses!” The fine for slaying a ẕimmī (be he a Jew, Christian, or idolater) is the same as for slaying a Muslim.

A complete fine is also levied for the destruction of a nose, or a tongue, or a virile member, and, also, if a person tear out the beard, or the hair of the scalp, or the whiskers, or both eyebrows, so that they never grow again, “because the beauty of the countenance is thereby effaced.”

A complete fine is due for any fellow parts, as for two eyes, two lips, &c., and one half the fine for one single member.

For each finger, a tenth of the complete fine is due, and as every finger has three joints, a third of the fine for the whole is due for each joint.

The fine for a tooth is a twentieth of the complete fine.

A half fine is due for merely destroying the use of a limb, but if a person strike another in any way so as to completely destroy the beauty of his person, a complete fine must be paid. Wounds on the face, viz. from the crown of the head to the chin, are specially treated, and are termed shijāj. Of shijāj, or “face wounds,” there are ten: (1) hārifah, or such as draw no blood—a mere scratch; (2) dāmiyah, a scratch which draws blood, without causing it to flow; (3) damīyah, a scratch which causes blood to flow; (4) bāẓiʿah, a cut through the skin; (5) mutalāḥimah, a cut to the flesh; (6) simḥāq, a wound reaching into the pericranium; (7) mūẓiḥah, a wound which lays bare the bone; (8) hāshimah, a fracture of the skull; (9) munākilah, a fracture which causes the removal of part of the skull; (10) āmmah, a wound extending to the brain.

For an āmmah wound, a third of the complete fine is due. Fifteen camels are due for a munākilah, ten for a hāshimah, five for a mūẓiḥah, and so on.

All other wounds on other parts of the body may be adjusted for according to the above scale, but are left to the decision of the judge.

For further information on the subject see “Bābu ʾl-Diyah” in the Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār, or the Hidāyah, or the Fatāwā ʿĀlamgīrī, or the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār.