A Jurisprudential Reflection on the Article 665 of the Islamic Penal Code

One of the rules ruling over diyyat- compensation payable in case of bodily harm or homicide- is the principle of the diyah for the single or dual body members which are negligently interpreted as odd and even body members. The above-mentioned principle holds that harming any even-body member deserves a full blood-ransom and given somebody harms one of these members, he deserves to pay half of the full blood-money, except the diyah for the two testicles. According to some of Imamiyah jurists, the diyah for the left testicle is two-third of the full blood-money while the diayah for the right one is one-third of it. This view is accepted by the lawmaker of the Islamic Penal Code and is approved and mentioned in the article 665. Having studied the different aspects of this issue and having investigated the five-fold sayings related to this subject, the authors of this paper believe in no distinction between the left and right testicle and argue that each of these testicles enjoy half of a full blood-ransom equally. However, Mukhtar’s saying refers to specific indications and accords with the rules ruling over diyat.