What is the ruling regarding the liability when a person falling into a well drags another person down with him?

General Chapter

Al-Mughni

Book of Blood-Money (Diyyāt)

Book 48 · Issue 1 · Bab 1

Open in Qurani

Primary text

If the first person who was clung to dies due to his own action (being the one who fell first), his blood money (diya) is nullified (hedr). The diya of the second person is incumbent upon the *aqilah* (blood relatives responsible for diya) of the second person if he dies, because the second person killed him by pulling him down. If the second person drags a third, and all die, the third party bears no liability. The second person's diya is due from the *aqilah* of the first person in one legal opinion, because the first person directly caused the chain leading to the third's death through his initial pull, which cuts off the effect of the third person's own action (pulling the fourth, in a subsequent scenario), similar to a digger versus a pusher. In another view regarding the second person's diya, it is split between the *aqilah* of the first and second parties, as the first attracted the second, who then attracted the third, making the first complicit with the second in causing the third's demise. For the second person, one view states his diya is entirely upon the *aqilah* of the first because he perished due to the first's pull. If he perished by the third falling onto him, his death is attributed to the pull of the first and his own act of pulling the third, thus voiding his own action, like two colliding individuals, making the entire diya due from the first.

Supporting text

A second legal view states that the first party owes half the second person's diya, voiding the half corresponding to the second person's own action. A third possibility suggests half the second person's diya is due from his *aqilah* to his heirs, paralleling the case where a catapult projectile kills one person among three.