Qisas in the context of "Blood money in Islam"

Islamic criminal law (Arabic: فقه العقوبات) is criminal law in accordance with Sharia. Strictly speaking, Islamic law does not have a distinct corpus of "criminal law".

Islamic law divides crimes into three different categories depending on the offense – Hudud (crimes "against God", whose punishment is fixed in the Quran and the Hadiths), Qisas (crimes against an individual or family whose punishment is equal retaliation in the Quran and the Hadiths), and Tazir (crimes whose punishment is not specified in the Quran and the Hadiths, and is left to the discretion of the ruler or Qadi, i.e. judge). Some add the fourth category of Siyasah (crimes against government), while others consider it as part of either Hadd or Tazir crimes.

In traditional Islamic jurisprudence, Hudud (also Hadood, Hadud, Hudood, Arabic: حدود, romanized: ḥudūd pl., Hadd Arabic: حد sing.) literally "borders, boundaries, limits", refers to punishments (ranging from public lashing, public stoning to death, amputation of hands, crucifixion, depending on the crime), for several specific crimes (drinking alcohol, illicit sexual intercourse, false accusations of adultery, theft, apostasy from Islam, highway robbery, revolt against the ruler),for which punishments have been determined by verses of Quran or hadith.

Hudud is one of three categories of crime and punishment in classical Islamic literature, the other two being Qisas ("eye for an eye")–Diya (paying victims compensation), and Ta'zeer, (punishment left to the judge's or ruler's discretion). Hudud are crimes "against God", and cover the punishments given to those who exceed the "limits of God" (hududullah), associated with the Quran and in some cases inferred from hadith. (Qisas, Diya, and Ta'zeer deal with "crimes against man".)

In Islamic Law, tazir (ta'zeer, ta'zir or ta’dhir, Arabic: تعزير, romanized: taʿzīr lit. scolding, "to punish") refers to punishment for offenses at the discretion of the judge (Qadi) or ruler of the state. It is one of three major categories of punishments or sanctions under Islamic law (sharia, the other two or three being hadd, and qisas/diyya). Contrary to the lightness implied in "scolding", these discretionary punishments can range from a warning from the judge to corporal punishment such as flogging, fines, imprisonment, exile, and in extreme cases execution.

Tazir punishments are sometimes described as being for violations of Islamic law not specified in either the Qur'an nor the hadith, and so not reaching "the level of hudud" (crimes and punishments determined in the Qur'an or hadith), qisas ("eye for an eye" proportional retaliation punishment), or diya (compensation payments for situations where sharia does not allow for qisas retaliation).

In traditional Islamic jurisprudence, Hudud (also transliterated as Hadood, Hadud, Hudood, Arabic: حدود, romanized: ḥudūd; sing.: Hadd Arabic: حد), meaning "borders, boundaries, limits", refers to punishments (ranging from public lashing, public stoning to death, amputation of hands, crucifixion, depending on the crime), for several specific crimes (drinking alcohol, illicit sexual intercourse, false accusations of adultery, theft, apostasy from Islam, highway robbery, revolt against the ruler),for which punishments have been determined by verses of Quran or hadith.

Hudud is one of three categories of crime and punishment in classical Islamic literature, the other two being Qisas ("eye for an eye")–Diya (paying victims compensation), and Ta'zeer, (punishment left to the judge's or ruler's discretion). Hudud are crimes "against God", and cover the punishments given to those who exceed the "limits of God" (hududullah), associated with the Quran and in some cases inferred from hadith. (Qisas, Diya, and Ta'zeer deal with "crimes against man".)