Shijaj (wounds to the face and head, and their penalties)

Shijaj is the plural of shajja, a wound on the face or the head only; it is not found elsewhere on the body. The shajj is the mark of the wound on the brow. The jurists' usage does not depart from the lexical sense. ¹ The word jurah (wound) is wider, since it applies to any injury to the body; the category of injury short of death (al-jinaya ala ma dun al-nafs) is wider still, and head wounds are a part of it. ^{1 2}

Most jurists count ten or eleven kinds by what they produce: the scratch (haritha), which scratches the skin without drawing blood; the weeping (dami'a), which shows blood without flow; the bleeding (damiya), from which blood flows; the incision (ba'ida), which cuts the flesh a little after the skin; the flesh-tearing (mutalahima), which goes deeper and does not reach the simhaq; the simhaq; the mudiha, which exposes the bone; the hashima, which breaks it; the munaqqila, which moves the pieces after breaking; the ama, which reaches the lining of the brain; and the damigha, which pierces it. ^{2 3} The Hanbalis count the bleeding and the weeping as one wound. Muhammad among the Hanafis excludes the damigha as a killing rather than a wound, and excludes the scratch because it rarely leaves a trace. ³ The Malikis differ on order: bleeding, scratch, simhaq, incision, flesh-tearing, mulatta, mudiha, munaqqila, ama, damigha. ³

A head wound inflicted by error, before the mudiha, carries a just assessment, since it has no fixed sum and cannot be waived. ⁴ From the mudiha upward a fixed sum applies: the mudiha carries half a tenth of the blood-money, which is five camels for a free Muslim, on the letter of Amr ibn Hazm (may God be pleased with him). Ibn Qudama holds there is no fixed sum before the mudiha, and a report from Makhul says the Prophet ﷺ set five camels for the mudiha and none for what is below it. ⁴ The full details of the compensation are in the entry on blood-money. ⁴

If the wound is deliberate and is a mudiha, retaliation is due by agreement of the jurists, on the verse on wounds being subject to retaliation in al-Ma'ida (45), since it can be carried out without excess because the bone is its limit. A wound above the mudiha, such as the munaqqila or the ama, carries no retaliation, since excess or shortfall cannot be secured. ^{4 5} The Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow a victim of a wound above the mudiha to take retaliation for a mudiha, the Shafi'is and Abu Hamid adding its compensation for the excess; Abu Bakr among the Hanbalis holds there is no compensation for the excess, since it is one wound and retaliation and compensation may not both be taken for it. ⁴ Wounds before the mudiha, such as the bleeding, incision and flesh-tearing, carry retaliation according to the Malikis and the apparent view of the Hanafis and a view of the Shafi'is, while the Hanbalis and the Shafi'i school do not, since they cannot be measured; they carry a just assessment. ⁵ Al-Nakha'i and al-Sha'bi held that below the mudiha are scratches, with a just assessment and the physician's fee. ⁵

Most jurists hold that retaliation for a head wound is ordered only after it heals, on the report of Jabir that the Prophet forbade retaliation from the one who wounded until the wounded one healed; the wound may spread and become a killing. Retaliation before healing is reported as a view among the Hanbalis. ⁶ Compensation for a wound is ordered only after healing according to the Malikis and Hanbalis, while the Hanafis allow the arsh before the wound closes. ^{6 7}

If a wound spreads and causes death, deliberate wounds carry retaliation for the life, and an accidental one carries the blood-money of a life. Where the wound heals with a mark, retaliation is owed where it is due and a fixed sum or just assessment otherwise. Where it heals without a mark, the Malikis and Hanbalis owe the fixed sum where the law fixed one, and nothing for what lies below the mudiha; the Shafi'is in the sounder view owe a just assessment; Abu Hanifa holds nothing is owed; Abu Yusuf holds the assessment of the pain; Muhammad the physician's fee. The Hanbalis hold a discretionary punishment due where the wound healed without a trace. ^{7 8}

Retaliation for a head wound requires measuring the wound's length and breadth; its depth does not count, since the mudiha ends at the bone. If the offender struck the whole head and his head is larger than the victim's, the victim may take retaliation for his wound on any side, without covering the offender's whole head, since that would take more than is owed. The Hanafis give the victim the choice to take retaliation up to the length of his wound and stop, or to accept the compensation. ^{7 8} See the entries on injury short of death, overlapping of wounds and blood-money. ⁷