Qisas

Qiṣāṣ (Arabic: قصاص‎) is an Islamic term meaning "retaliation in kind" or revenge, "eye for an eye", "nemesis" or retributive justice. It is a category of crimes in Islamic jurisprudence, where Sharia allows equal retaliation as the punishment. Qisas principle is available against the accused, to the victim or victim's heirs, when a Muslim is murdered, suffers bodily injury or suffers property damage. In the case of murder, Qisas means the right of a murder victim's nearest relative or Wali (ولي) (legal guardian) to, if the court approves, take the life of the killer.

Qisas is one of several forms of punishment in Islamic Penal Law, others being Hudud, Diyya and Ta'zir.

Islamic scriptures

The Qisas or equivalence verse in Quran is,

The Hadiths have extensive discussion of qisas. For example, Sahih Bukhari states,

Qisas system of punishment is prescribed in Quran and Hadiths to any case of unnatural death (murder, manslaughter), bodily injury or aggravated assault suffered by a Muslim. However, in the history of Islam, many premodern Islamic scholars ruled that Qisas did not apply when the victim was a non-Muslim dhimmi and to non-Muslim slaves owned by a Muslim.