Surah Baqarah Verses 178 and 179

O you who have believed, prescribed for you is legal retribution for those murdered – the free for the free, the slave for the slave, and the female for the female. But whoever overlooks from his brother anything, then there should be a suitable follow-up and payment to him with good conduct. This is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy. But whoever transgresses after that will have a painful punishment.

And there is for you in legal retribution [saving of] life, O you [people] of understanding, that you may become righteous.

The focal point of these verses appears to be the idea of qisas, which translates to equal retribution in Islam. The literal meaning of Islam is Submission [to Allah]. Islam is defined as ‘Submission [to Allah] and is derived from a word meaning "peace," for it is in submitting to Allah’s Will that human beings gain peace in their lives in this world and the hereafter. Islam is a religion that promotes peace in all circumstances…

With regards to qisaas in these verses, when you kill someone, it is the law that the same be done to you. Subhanallah, look at the justice...an eye for an eye. However for those who fail to see the justice in such a law, by the mercy of Allah SWT and His acknowledgement that all people are different and think and feel in
various ways, has given two alternate options given that the heirs of the one murdered wish not to kill the offender, and that is either to take blood money from the offender in place of his life, or to forgive the offender altogether by not taking his life and forgiving the blood money which was due. And though any one of these three options is permissible, Allah SWT has commanded that we choose the first, and that is to take the life of the offender and subhanallah we can see the hikmah in this, that by ending the life of the offender, it's effects on society as a whole are positive. People can see the consequences of taking the sanctity of human life, whereas if the offender is forgiven, then he will feel no shame which may lead him to repeating his actions and there is no justice in that. In relation to statistics if comparing Saudi Arabia, where capital punishment is instilled to Canada for instance where it is not, the number of murders committed in Canada is substantial in comparison to
Saudia Arabia, so looking at this matter from an overall perspective, peace actually lies in capital punishment subhanallah!!! Many times we fail to see the bigger picture of any particular matter and rather we focus more closely on the immediate effects. So for those who view qisaas as barbaric, unjust or contrary to peace which
is the essence of our religion, might want to give it a second thought and reconsider as losing the life of one is far greater than losing the lives of many which is what we are witnessing in the world today.

Nazia Hussain

Onsite Student
Taleem Al Quran 2010