Could Not Answer

ooklets: “In matters concerning the individual’s private relations,
the Bible has placed more emphasis on the necessity of love,
patience with trouble, and forgiveness than did the Sharî’at of
Mûsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’. Accordingly, Islam should have afforded a
much more sublime merit than that of Christianity in respect of
forgiving the guilty individual. In punishing the guilty, it is more
relentless than, let alone the Sharî’at of Mûsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’, the
laws put by Jews as a result of their misinterpretation of his
Sharî’at. It not only represents lex talionis as permissible, but also
tolerates vengeance. The third âyat of Sûra-i-Isrâ purports. ‘If a
person is killed unjustly, we shall give power and authority of
aggression to the inheriting trustee of that murdered person.’ The
hundred and seventy-eighth âyat of Sûra-i-Baqara purports, ‘O
Believers! Retaliation [for those who have been killed
deliberately] has been enjoined as a farz upon you. Retaliation is
carried out as a free person for a free person, a slave for a slave,
and a woman for a woman.’ This is a noteworthy point. For
Qur’ân al-kerîm, unlike the Taurah, has not made any
explanations to forestall the misusage of such an important law.
Therefore, people belonging to some Islamic tribes misunderstand
these âyats and think that this permission of Qur’ân al-kerîm
comprehends not only the murderer but also any one of the
murderer’s relations, and consequently more often than not an
innocent person gets killed in lieu of the murderer. The Taurah, in
contrast, protects lex talionis against such wrong interpretations
by openly forewarning, ‘Sons shall not be killed in lieu of fathers,
and fathers shall not be killed instead of their sons. Every
(murderer) shall be killed only on account of his own felony,’ in
the sixteenth verse of the twenty-fourth chapter of Deuteronomy.
In addition to the retaliation for murder, Qur’ân al-kerîm
commands retaliation for slight woundings. The sixtieth âyat of
Hajj sûra purports, ‘If a Believer responds in kind to some harm
inflicted on him and then is wronged again, Allâhu ta’âlâ will help
him.’ Through such commandments as these, Qur’ân al-kerîm,
contrary to the Bible’s advising patience with troubles, love and
forgiveness, encourages Muslims to display their grudge against
one another. The Ottomans, who had realized that such things
would be cruelty and infringement of others’ rights, eventually
discontinued the execution of the commandment in the thirtyeighth
âyat of Mâida sûra, which purports, ‘To visit divine
retribution on the male thief and the female thief, cut off their
[right] hands.’ ”
– 313 –