DIYAT (INDEMNITY)

Muhammad retained the old Arab practice of bloodwite (4166-4174).  Thus, when a woman struck her pregnant co-wife with a tent-pole, causing her to have a miscarriage, he fixed �a male or female slave of best quality� as the indemnity �for what was in her womb.� An eloquent relative of the woman pleaded for the cancellation of the indemnity, arguing: �Should we pay indemnity for one who neither ate, nor made any noise, who was just Eke a nonentity?� Muhammad brushed aside his objection, saying that the man was merely talking �rhymed phrases like the rhymed phrases of desert Arabs� (4170).

author : ram swarup