Surah al-Ma'idah (The Table) 5 : 45

Overview (Verse 45)

An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth
 
God also knows that some of those who are charged with the safekeeping and implementation of God’s law may find worldly temptations too strong to resist. As they realise that people with power or money and those who seek all types of pleasure oppose God’s legislation, they may flatter them in order to gain something of the riches and pleasures of this world. Professional clerics in all generations have yielded to such temptation, as did some Jewish rabbis. God addresses all those, saying to them: “Do not barter away My revelations for a paltry price.” (Verse 44) That is the price they may get in return for their silence or for their distortion of God’s revelations or for issuing doubtful rulings. Indeed, every price offered is paltry, even if it includes all that is in this world. How could it be described otherwise when it is no more than a position, a salary, a title and a petty interest for which faith is bartered away and Hell is purchased?
 
Nothing is more wicked than treachery by a person who is in a position of trust and nothing is more vile than the distortion of facts by a witness. Those who are given the title “religious men” do commit such treachery and distortion. They remain idle when they are called upon to work for the implementation of God’s revelation and they lift words out of their context in order to please those in power at the expense of God’s revelation.
 
In a most decisive and definitive statement, God tells us: “Those who do not judge in accordance with what God has revealed are indeed unbelievers.” (Verse 44) The generality of this statement makes it absolutely unrestricted to time or place. The ruling is definitive and applicable to everyone who does not judge according to God’s revelations, regardless of where and in which period he lives.
 
The reason is the one we have already explained. A person whose judgement is at variance with God’s revelations denies that Godhead belongs to God alone. A basic quality of Godhead is the authority to legislate as also His sovereignty. Whoever observes something other than God’s revelations in his judgement not only rejects a particular aspect of Godhead but also claims for himself certain qualities of Godhead. If that is not unbelief, I wonder what is. For what use is a verbal claim of being a believer or submitting to God, when action denies such a claim?
 
Any argument about this definitive and decisive ruling is no more than an attempt to avoid facing the reality. To try to give this ruling a different interpretation is simply an attempt to lift words out of their context. Such arguments change nothing of God’s clear and definitive judgement.
 
Having explained this basic rule in all Divine faiths, the sūrah gives some examples of the law contained in the Torah which God revealed so that on its basis, prophets, divines, and rabbis might judge among the Jews: “We decreed for them in it: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and a similar retribution for wounds.” (Verse 45)
 
These provisions outlined in the Torah have been retained as an integral part of Islamic law, since it is meant to be the law of all mankind, till the end of time. It is true that these provisions may not be implemented except in the land of Islam, but this is only for practical reasons. Islamic authority cannot implement these provisions beyond the borders of the land of Islam. Whenever and wherever Muslim rulers can implement these laws, they are required to do so, since Islamic law is a code for all mankind in all generations. One provision has been added to them under Islam. This is the one to which reference is made in the following Qur’ānic statement: “But for him who foregoes it out of charity, it will atone for some of his sins.” (Verse 45) This was not included in the law of the Torah. Retaliation was inevitable. No one could waive it or forego it. Hence, atonement of sins could not be achieved through such a charitable gesture.
 
A word on the concept of retaliation in punishment for injuries will not go amiss. The basic principle which is established through this concept is that of the equality of human beings and their equality before the law. No law other than Divine law acknowledges such an equality so as to make the punishment equal to the crime and to remove all considerations of class, position, lineage and race. This principle is amplified by its comprehensive application: “A lie for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth or a tooth, and a similar retribution for wounds.” (Verse 45) There is no distinction between one class and another, rulers and ruled. All are equal before God’s law, since they all descend from one single soul created by God.
 
This great principle established by God’s law is the true and complete declaration of the birth of man when all human beings are considered equal, subject to the same law which rules on the basis of absolute equality. It is the first declaration of its kind. Human laws lagged behind for tens of centuries before they began to rise to its level, but even then, their aspirations have remained partial and theoretical. As for their practical application, human laws continue to lag behind.
 
The Jews, in whose Scripture, the Torah, this great principle was established, deviated from it in their relations with other people. They used to say: “We have no obligation to keep faith with Gentiles.” (3: 75) They also deviated from it in their own internal relations, as we have already explained when two Jewish tribes in Madinah, the Qurayżah and the al-Nađīr established a system of blood money which gave the victorious twice as much as it gave the defeated. The Prophet Muĥammad (peace be upon him) brought them back to the implementation of God’s law based on equality. He put them all on the same level.
 
Apart from its being a declaration of the birth of man, retaliation on the basis of equality is a most effective deterrent which makes anyone who contemplates killing another or causing him bodily harm think twice before putting his thoughts into action. He knows that regardless of his position, family connections, class or race, he will be executed for killing and he will suffer the same bodily harm as he causes.
 
If he cuts off a hand or a leg of another person, he will have his own hand or leg cut off; and if he destroys an eye, an ear, a nose or a tooth, he will be similarly impaired. But if he were only to face a period of imprisonment, long as it may be, for such actions, then he is unlikely to be deterred for long. His own physical agony or handicap is so very different from a period of imprisonment.
 
Moreover, retaliation on the basis of equality is the sort of punishment which appeals to human nature. It quenches the desire for revenge which may be fuelled by blind fury and it pacifies hearts and heals wounds. Some people may accept blood money while others insist on retaliation.
 
Under Islam, Divine legislation takes full account of human nature, just as it did in the Torah. Having ensured the satisfactory punishment of retaliation, Islam appeals to the benevolent element in human nature to encourage charitable forbearance: “But for him who foregoes it out of charity, it will atone for some of his sins.” (Verse 45) It is up to the killed victim’s next of kin or to the injured person himself in all cases of wounds and injuries to be charitable and forego retaliation. It is up to either person, out of his own free choice, to forego his right to retaliation and to accept blood money in place of it, or to forego both. If he does, God will forgive him some or all of his sins. It should be added, however, that even if such a person foregoes retaliation for blood money, the Muslim ruler may enforce a lesser punishment, as he deems fit, on the killer.