al-Ishtirak al-Mutamadd fi al-Jinaya ala al-Nafs bil-Qatl aw al-Jarh
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- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
al-Ishtirak al-Mutamadd fi al-Jinaya ala al-Nafs bil-Qatl aw al-Jarh (Deliberate Complicity in Offenses Against Life by Killing or Wounding) is a contemporary treatise on comparative Islamic criminal jurisprudence by Abdullah ibn Mutaq al-Suhaili .
Purpose and Scope
The author composed the work to examine the complex and multifaceted legal issues surrounding retribution (qisas) for homicide and bodily injury, focusing specifically on deliberate joint participation (al-ishtirak al-mutamadd) in unlawful assaults on human life and physical integrity . Noting the differences among jurists regarding the application of capital retribution (al-qawad) and retaliatory punishment for severed limbs and wounds, al-Suhaili sought to clarify the legal rulings and address ambiguities in an accessible scholarly manner .
Structure
The treatise is organized into an introduction, five thematic chapters (mabahith), and a conclusion (khatimah) :
- Introduction: Outlines the opening remarks, research outline, and methodological approach .
- Chapter One: Defines criminal offense (jinayah) linguistically and technically, outlining its various categories .
- Chapter Two: Treats the legal ruling on unlawful homicide (hukm al-qatl bi-ghayr haqq) .
- Chapter Three: Examines the legal basis for retribution in homicide and sub-lethal bodily injury across two subsections (matlaban):
- The legitimacy of retribution in offenses against life .
- The legitimacy of retribution in offenses against what is less than life .
- Chapter Four: Analyzes deliberate complicity in the murder of a single victim across three subsections:
- Joint participation in killing a single individual .
- Complicity between a father and an unrelated party in the killing of a child .
- Joint participation in homicide involving a minor, an insane person, and an adult .
- Chapter Five: Addresses deliberate complicity in inflicting wounds or severing limbs on a single individual .
- Conclusion: Summarizes the primary findings of the investigation .
Method
In preparing the study, al-Suhaili collected the legal material on deliberate joint participation in murder and wounding and conducted a comparative analysis (dirasah muwazanah) across the four Sunni legal schools, while also incorporating relevant opinions from Companions, Successors, and other jurists . To present the material clearly, he prefaced agreed-upon questions with statements of scholarly consensus (ijma') or broad agreement (ittifaq); in cases where disagreement was limited, he cited the majority view first before stating dissenting opinions, outlining each position's arguments, answering potential objections, and concluding with his preferred ruling (al-qawl al-rajih) .
The author relied on primary legal sources, recorded Quranic verses with their surah names and numbers, and documented hadiths by book, chapter, volume, and page . For hadiths not found in Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim, he evaluated their authenticity based on dedicated hadith literature . He also defined obscure terminology using specialized lexical works, omitted biographical entries of named figures to maintain brevity, and concluded the volume with alphabetical bibliographies and subject indexes .
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