EXECUTION. The Muḥammadan mode of execution is as follows:—The executioner (jallād) seizes the condemned culprit by the right hand, while with a sharp sword or axe he aims a blow at the back of the neck, and the head is detached at the first stroke. This mode of execution is still, or was till lately, practised in Muḥammadan states in India.

If a Qāẓī say, I have sentenced such a person to be stoned, or to have his hand cut off, or to be killed, do you therefore do it; it is lawful for that person to whom the Qāẓī has given the order to carry it out.

And according to Abū Ḥanīfah, if the Qāẓī order the executioner to cut off the right hand, and the executioner wilfully cut off the left, he is not liable to punishment. But other doctors do not agree with him.

EXECUTOR. Arabic Waṣī (وصى‎), a term also used for the testator; wakīl ʿalā ʾl-waṣīyah (وكيل على الوصية‎). An executor having accepted his appointment in the presence of the testator, is not afterwards at liberty to withdraw, and any act indicative of his having accepted the position of executor binds him to fulfil his duties.

A Muslim may not appoint a slave, or a reprobate (fāsiq) or an infidel as his executor, and in the event of his doing so, the Qāẓī must nominate a proper substitute. But if none of the testator’s heirs have attained their majority, a slave may be appointed as executor until they are of age.

If joint executors have been appointed and one of them die, the Qāẓī must appoint a substitute in office.

In the cases of infants or absent heirs, the executor is entitled to possess himself pro tem. of their property, but he cannot trade with his ward’s portion.

If a person die without appointing an executor, the next of kin administers the estate, and it is an arrangement of Muslim law that his father is his executor and not his eldest son. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 554.)

EXILES, The. [[MUHAJIRUN].]

EXISTENCES. The Arabic word wujūd (وجود‎), expresses a substance, or essence, or existence. According to Muḥammadan writers (see G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah), existences are of three kinds: Wājibu ʾl-wujūd, “a necessary existence,” e.g. Almighty God; mumkinu ʾl-wujūd, “a possible existence,” e.g. the human kind; mumtaniʿu ʾl-wujūd, “an impossible existence,” e.g. a partner with the Divine Being.