QISAS

QisAs literally means �tracking the footsteps of an enemy�; but technically, in Muslim law, it is retaliatory punishment, an eye for an eye.  It is the lex talionis of the Mosaic law.

A Jew smashed the head of an ansAr girl and she died.  Muhammad commanded that his head be crushed between two stones (4138).  But in another case, which involved the sister of one of the Companions, bloodwite was allowed.  She had broken someone�s teeth.  When the case was brought to Muhammad, he told her that �QisAs [retaliation] was a command prescribed in the Book of Allah.� She made urgent pleas and was allowed to go free after paying a money compensation to the victim�s next of kin (4151).

author : ram swarup