Buying and Selling: Ruling on Refusing Blood Money and Guardianship Rights in Homicide Cases

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Buying and Selling: Ruling on Refusing Blood Money and Guardianship Rights in Homicide Cases

English:

Question #1484:

A woman was killed. She left her father, mother, husband, and three minor children behind. Her brother-in-law was convicted of her murder and ordered to pay blood money to the woman’s inheritors. However, the killed woman’s husband, who is the shar‘ī guardian of the children, is convinced that his brother is not the killer. Thus, he refused to receive the blood money:

1) Is he justified in so doing?

2) With the existence of the father and the paternal grandfather of the children, has anyone else the right to intervene and insist on having blood money for the children from their convicted uncle?

Answer #1484:

1) If the children’s father was absolutely certain that his brother was not the killer of his wife, it is not permissible for him to demand, and receive, the blood money in the name of restoring the rights of his minor children.

2) Since the father and the paternal grandfather, who have the right of guardianship over the children, are alive, no one else has the right to meddle in their affairs.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Buying and Selling