What is the compensation for temporary injuries inflicted upon a slave?
Chapter on Diyat (Blood Money) for Wounds
Al-Mughni
Book of Blood-Money (Diyyāt)
Primary text
Any temporary injury inflicted upon a slave requires compensation based on the diminution of his market value after the wound has healed. For instance, if an injury that results in half the value of a freeman's limb is inflicted, half the slave's market value is owed. For an *mudihah* (a wound that exposes bone), half of one-tenth of the slave's value is owed, regardless of whether the injury diminishes the value by more or less than that amount. The general principle is that injury inflicted upon a slave mandates compensation proportional to the reduction in his market value, as this alone remedies the loss incurred. This is the established principle where no legally fixed measure (muqaddar shar'i) exists.
Supporting text
Regarding injuries where a fixed measure exists for a freeman (such as the hand or *mudihah*), there are differing narrations from Ahmad. One narration suggests the rule follows the freeman, meaning fixed compensation amounts apply to the slave's value, such as half the value for the hand, and one-twentieth the value for the *mudihah*, with the master retaining ownership of the slave. This view is narrated from Ali, Saeed ibn al-Musayyib, Ibn Sirin, 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, Al-Shafi'i, and Al-Thawri, and Abu Hanifa. Another view is that the compensation is solely based on the diminution of value, consistent with the loss in non-fixed injuries. Furthermore, Abu Hanifa and Al-Thawri stipulated that for injuries mandating full Diyah in a freeman, the slave's master has the choice: either the perpetrator pays the full value of the slave, making the slave the property of the injurer, or the perpetrator pays nothing, to avoid uniting the substitute (value) and the substituted object (the slave) in one owner.