According to Abū Ḥanīfah, there is no expiation for wilful murder, but ash-Shāfiʿī maintains that expiation is incumbent as an act of piety.
(2) Qatl shibhu ʾl-ʿAmd (قتل شبه العمد), or “manslaughter,” or, as Hamilton more correctly renders it, “A semblance of wilful murder, is when the perpetrator strike a man with something which is neither a weapon nor serves as such.”
The argument adduced by Abū Ḥanīfah is a saying of the Prophet: “Killing with a rod or stick is not murder, but only manslaughter, and the fine for it is a hundred camels, payable within three years.”
Manslaughter is held to be sinful and to require expiation, and it excludes the manslayer from inheriting the property of the slain.
(3) Qatlu ʾl-K͟hat̤āʾ (قتل الخطاء), or “homicide by misadventure,” is of two kinds: error in intention, and error in the act. Error in the act is where a person intends a particular act, and another act is thereby occasioned; as where, for instance, a person shoots an arrow at a mark and it hits a man. Error in intention, on the other hand, is where the mistake occurs not in the act, but with respect to the subject; as where a person shoots an arrow at a man supposing him to be game; or at a Muslim, supposing him to be a hostile infidel. The slayer by misadventure is required to free a Muslim slave, or fast two months successively, and to pay a fine within three years. He is also excluded from inheriting the property of the slain.
(4) Qatl qāʾim maqāma ʾl-K͟hat̤āʾ (قتل قائم مقام الخطاء), or “homicide of a similar nature to homicide by misadventure,” is where, for example, a person walking in his sleep falls upon another, so as to kill him by the fall. It is subject to the same rules with homicide by misadventure.
(5) Qatl bi-Sabab (قتل بسبب), or, “homicide by intermediate cause,” is where, for instance, a man digs a well, or sets up a stone, and another falls into the well, or over the stone, and dies. In this case a fine must be paid, but it does not exclude from inheritance, nor does it require expiation.
No special mention is made in either the Qurʾān or in Muḥammadan law books, of taking the life by poison. (The same remark applies to the Mosaic law. See Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, Article “Murder.”)
With regard to retaliation, a freeman is slain for a freeman, and a slave for a slave; a freeman is also slain for the wilful murder of a slave the property of another.
According to Abū Ḥanīfah, a Muslim is put to death for killing an unbeliever, but ash-Shāfiʿī maintains otherwise, because the Prophet said, “A Muslim shall not suffer death for an unbeliever.”