Hadith record

Muhammad Bin Yahya from Ahmad Bin Muhammad and Ali Bin Ibrahim from his father, both together from Ibn Mahboub, from Hisham Bin Salim, from Zurara, (The narrator) says, ‘I asked Abu Ja’far asws about a man who killed, so they carried him to the governor, and a group came so the witnesses testified against him that they killed him deliberately. So the governor handed over the killer to the guardians of the killed one in order for them to retaliate (revenge) against him. So, they had not begun with him when a man came over and confessed in the presence of the governor that he had killed their companion deliberately, and that this man against whom the witnesses had testified is free from the killing of so and so companion of yours, therefore he should not be killed for it, and seize me (instead) for his blood’. He (the narrator) said, ‘So Abu Ja’far asws said: ‘If the guardians of the killed one intend to kill the one who confessed against himself, so let them kill him, and there would be no way for them against the other one. Then there is no way for the inheritors of the one who confessed against himself against the inheritors of the one testified against. And if they intend to kill the one who has been testified against, so let them kill him, and there would be no way for them against the one who confessed. Then the one who confessed against himself should pay the wergild to the guardians of the one testified against, of half the wergild’. I said, ‘What is your asws view if they intend to they should kill both of them together?’ He asws said: ‘That is for them, and upon them would be that they should hand over half the wergild to the guardians of the one testified against in particular, besides his companion. Then they can kill both of them’. I said, ‘What is your asws view if they intend to take the wergild?’ So he asws said: ‘The wergild is in two halves in between them both, because one of the two confessed, and the other one has been testified against’. I said, ‘How come you asws made half the wergild to be for the guardians of the one who was testified against, over the one who confessed against himself that he had killed, and did not make it for the guardians of the one who confessed against himself over the one who was testified against, and he did not kill?’ So he asws said: ‘Because the one who was testified against is not similar to the one who confessed. The one who was testified against did not confess and did not free his companions, and the one other confessed and freed his companion. Therefore, it necessitates that the one who confessed and freed his companion that does not necessitate the one who was testified against, and did not confess and did not free his companion’.

Translation: HubeAli — attributed by Thaqalayn·The Arabic above is the original.