'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (o ye who believe! retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the murdered ones; the freeman for the freeman) a freeman who premeditatedly kills another freeman, (and the slave for the slave) a slave who premeditatedly kills another, (and the female for the female) a female who premeditatedly kills another. this verse was revealed regarding two arab clans but is abrogated by the verse: (… a life for a life) [5:45]. (and for him who is forgiven somewhat by his brother) whoever forgives the killing and takes instead blood money, (prosecution according to usage) allah commands the person who asks for blood money to claim this money according to practised usage: three years if it is a full blood money, two years if it is half of the blood money, or one year if it is a third (and payment unto him) the person who is required to pay blood money is commanded to give the custodians of the murdered person what is due to them (in kindness) without the need to go to court or making it difficult for them. (this) this pardon (is an alleviation) appeasement (and a mercy from your lord) towards the killer such that he is not killed. (he who transgresseth after this) after taking the blood money and kills the murderer (will have a painful doom) he shall be killed and will not be forgiven or allowed to pay blood money.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : o you who believe, prescribed, made obligatory, for you is retaliation, on equal terms, regarding the slain, both in the attributes [of the one slain] and in the action involved; a free man, is killed, for a free man, and not for a slave; and a slave for a slave, and a female for a female. the sunna makes it clear that a male may be killed [in retaliation] for a female, and that religious affiliation should be taken into account also, so that a muslim cannot be killed in return for an disbeliever, even if the former be a slave and the latter a free man. but if anything, of the blood, is pardoned any one, of those who have slain, in relation to his brother, the one slain, so that the retaliation is waived (the use of the indefinite shay’un, ‘anything’, here implies the waiving of retaliation through a partial pardon by the inheritors [of the slain]; the mention of akhīh [‘his brother’] is intended as a conciliatory entreaty to pardon and a declaration that killing should not sever the bonds of religious brotherhood; the particle man, ‘any one’, is the subject of a conditional or a relative clause, of which the predicate is [the following, fa’ittibā‘un]) let the pursuing, that is, the action of the one who has pardoned in pursuing the killer, be honourable, demanding the blood money without force. the fact that the ‘pursuing’ results from the ‘pardoning’ implies that one of the two [actions] is a duty, which is one of al-shāfi‘ī’s two opinions here. the other [opinion] is that retaliation is the duty, whereas the blood money is merely compensation [for non-retaliation], so that if one were to pardon but not name his blood money, then nothing [happens]; and this [latter] is the preferred [opinion]. and let the payment, of the blood money by the slayer, to him, the pardoner, that is, the one inheriting [from the slain], be with kindliness, without procrastination or fraud; that, stipulation mentioned here about the possibility of retaliation and the forgoing of this in return for blood money, is an alleviation, a facilitation, given, to you, by your lord, and a mercy, for you, for he has given you latitude in this matter and has not categorically demanded that one [of the said options] be followed through, in the way that he made it obligatory for jews to retaliate and for christians to [pardon and] accept blood money; and for him who commits aggression, by being unjust towards the killer and slaying him, after that, that is, [after] pardoning — his is a painful chastisement, of the fire in the hereafter, or of being killed in this world.
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi
تفسير : (o ye who believe! retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the murdered…) [2:178].
said al-sha‘bi: “fighting took place between two arab tribes. one tribe had more power than the other and, therefore, they said: ‘for every slave of ours that you kill, we will kill a free man of yours, and for every woman of ours a man of yours’. and then this verse was revealed”.
