Unintentional Killing in Battles
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, in battles, a person may accidentally kill his own allies, or kill people he does not see. What is the ruling in such cases, especially when the battles are between Muslims?
Answer:
Battles between Muslims, battles between Muslims are not permissible; this is baghy (armed rebellion against legitimate authority) and is not allowed. But if the fighting is between Muslims and disbelievers, and a Muslim is killed by mistake, thinking he is one of the disbelievers, then there is an expiation (kaffarah) for it, but no blood money (diyah).[An-Nisa 4:92] Or if he is from a people who are enemies to you, and if [An-Nisa 4:92] a believer, there is only an expiation for him, and no blood money.
Honorable Shaykh, in battles, a person may accidentally kill his own allies, or kill people he does not see. What is the ruling in such cases, especially when the battles are between Muslims?
Answer:
Battles between Muslims, battles between Muslims are not permissible; this is baghy (armed rebellion against legitimate authority) and is not allowed. But if the fighting is between Muslims and disbelievers, and a Muslim is killed by mistake, thinking he is one of the disbelievers, then there is an expiation (kaffarah) for it, but no blood money (diyah).
and if he was from a people with whom you have a treaty
وَإِن كَانَ مِن قَوْمٍ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُم مِّيثَاقٌif the deceased was from a people at war with you and he was a believer - then [only] the freeing of a believing slave
كَانَ مِن قَوْمٍ عَدُوٍّ لَّكُمْ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 80 من 89|شرح العدة في شرح العمدة|كتاب الديات|باب كفارة القتل|صالح الفوزان|الفقه|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (1:13:53)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.