The Murder of Husband

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It has been reported by Asbagh bin Nabata that a woman had an illicit relation with a man  but she was married to another man. She, on the very first night of her marriage induced her lover to come stealthily into her private room. When her husband wanted to go to bed with her, her lover attacked him, but her husband did not only repulse the attack but also killed him in the fight which ensued thereafter. Seeing this the woman attacked her husband from behind and killed him. When the case was brought to Hazrat Ali (A), he gave the decision that the blood-money for the murder of the first man, that is, the lover of the woman should be paid by herself and she should be stoned to death for the murder of the second man, that is, her husband.

(Manaqib Shehr Aashob, vol. 2, p 200 Turaq-i-Hikmia p 50).

Allama Jazaeri of Lahore has added the following note to the above Judgment:- “The great scholar Allama Syed Mohsin Aamli has said with regard to this Judgment that it has been reported in the same words as quoted above, but according to the religious law the compensation for the murder of the lover of the woman was not due from her, because he had come to the house of her husband, who killed him in his defence at his own will and on his own feet.”

What Allama Syed Mohsin has said may be correct, but the blood money was, as a matter of fact, due from the woman in question because it was she who had induced her lover to enter her bed-room at the dark of night which was otherwise impossible, hence the above decision by Hazrat Ali (A). (Ref: Abu Turab, vol. 2, p. 54).

Reference : Judgments of Hazrat Ali (as)