Al-Kafi 14344

Translation

Ali Bin Ibrahim, from his father, from Muhammad Bin Hafs, from Al Husayn Bin Khalid who said, ‘Abu Abdullah^asws was asked about a man who cut off the head of a dead man. So he^asws said: ‘Allah^azwj Mighty and Majestic has Sanctified from it for a dead just as He^azwj has Sanctified from it for a living. So the one who deals with a dead with a deed which violates it is similar to violating a living. Thus, upon him would be the wergild’. So I asked Abu Al-Hassan^asws about that, so he^asws said: ‘Abu Abdullah^asws spoke truthfully. Such is what Rasool-Allah^saww said’. I said, ‘So the one who cut of the head of a dead, or pierces his belly, or does with him what happens to be a violation in it of a living soul, so upon him is the complete wergild of the soul?’ So he^asws said: ‘No, but its wergild is the wergild of the foetus which is in the belly of its mother, before the spirit is Breathed into it, and that is one hundred Dinars, and it is for its (foetus’s) inheritors, while the wergild of this one (deceased), it is for him, not for his inheritors. I said, ‘So what is the difference between the two?’ He^asws said: ‘The foetus is a matter of the future, its benefit is hoped for, and this one has passed and its benefit has gone. So when his is tortured with after his death, his wergild comes to be for the torture of his, not for someone else. It (wergild) would be utilised for performing Hajj with it on his behalf, and would be done with it from the doors of goodness and the righteousness, from charity or other than it.’ I said, ‘So if a man intends that he digs a grave for him in order to wash him in his grave, so the man shovel from what he digs, and the shovel in his hand touches his belly so it pierces. So what would be upon him?’ So he^asws said: ‘When it is like that, so it is a mistake, and its expiation is the freeing of a neck, or Fasting for two months consecutively, or charity upon sixty poor ones, a handful (<span class="iTxt">Mudd</span>) for each poor, by a handful (<span class="iTxt">Mudd</span>) of the Prophet^saww’.

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