Qisas

''Qisas'' or ''Qiṣāṣ'' () is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind", "eye for an eye", or retributive justice. ''Qisas'' and ''diyya'' applied as an alternative in cases where retaliation conditions not met are two of several forms of punishment in classical/traditional Islamic criminal jurisprudence, the others being ''Hudud'' and ''Ta'zir''.

In ancient societies, the principle of retaliation meant that the person who committed a crime or the tribe to which he belonged was punished in a manner, equivalent to the crime committed. So, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an ear for an ear, and a life for a life. Since there was no principle of individual responsibility in ancient societies, someone else, such as the closest relative, could be punished instead of the criminal. Most of the time, it was ignored whether the act was intentional or not, and a price of life or blood was charged for each life.

Qisas was a practice used as a resolution tool in inter-tribal conflicts in pre-Islamic Arabian society. The basis of this practice was that a member of the tribe to which the murderer belonged was handed over to the victim's family for execution, equivalent to the social status of the murdered person. The condition of ''social equivalence'' meant the execution of a member of the murderer's tribe who was equivalent to the murdered, in that the murdered person was male or female, slave or free, elite or commonplace. For example, only one slave can be killed for a slave, and a woman can be killed for a woman. On this pre-islamic understandings the discussion ''whether a Muslim could be executed for a non-Muslim'' was added in Islamic period.

The legal systems of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and the northern states of Nigeria currently apply ''qisas''. Provided by Wikipedia