Examining the Legal Principles of the Ruling on the Retaliated Punishment (Qiṣāṣ) of Mother for Murdering her Child

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Fāṭima Qudratī
• Farībā Ḥājī‘alī

10.22067/fiqh.v0i0.12918

Abstract

Murder is among the most abominable human acts and the most criminal behavior of mankind; in Shī’a jurisprudence, punishment for deliberate murder is qiṣāṣ (retaliated punishment) in general. On the basis of this general principle, murder of child by father is regarded as an exception. On that account, the ruling concerning the mother in this respect is set forth and with respect to the solidity of evidences of the opponents to the qiṣāṣ of the mother, a reappraisal of the legal principles of this ruling is being felt. To this end, the present article deals with the refinement of the basis of the ruling concerning the father through annulment of his specificity, and contrary to the generally accepted view, which regards the “paternal relation” as the criterion for this ruling, implies the “parental relation” as the annulment of the basis of the ruling implied from the above evidences. Furthermore, given the other disputes entered into the evidences of the proponents of the qiṣāṣ of the mother as well as the evidences presented in the claim under discussion, the article regards the mother as annexed to the father in the ruling of non-retaliated punishment for murder of the child, and even given the inclusion of the traditions in relation to the mother, it considers as possible the inclusion of the ruling to the mother from the very beginning and without need for annexation.

Keywords

• murder of one’s child
• qiṣāṣ of the father
• qiṣāṣ of the mother
• paternal grandfather

---