المعنى الاصطلاحي :

Penalty prescribed by the Shariah which entails punishing the perpetrator by subjecting him to the same harm that he is guilty of.

الشرح المختصر :

"Qisās" (legal retribution) is a Shariah-prescribed punishment that requires equality between crime and punishment, if possible. "Qisās" becomes due in the cases of murder, body cuts and wounds, wounds in the head or face, and disruption of the function of bodily organs. In terms of the type of the crime, "qisās" is of two kinds: 1. "Qisās" for damaging the life. 2. "Qisās" for damaging what is less than life, like the eye, ear, and tooth. Some scholars divide "qisās", in its essence, into physical "qisās", such as in murder and wounds, and moral "qisās", like the imposition of financial penalties. A case of "qisās" is established by one of two ways: 1. The perpetrator confesses to the commission of the crime. 2. Two just men give their testimony.

التعريف اللغوي المختصر :

"Qisās": similitude and equality. When a person makes "qisās" against his enemy, this means that he does the same to his enemy as he had done to him. "Qisās" also means to punish in the same way the injustice was perpetrated. It is derived from "qassa", which means tracing. It also means cutting.