Usamah’s Killing of the Man and the Non-Application of Retaliation Against Him
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Does the fact that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not take retaliation from Usamah indicate that his killing of the man was a mistake? We ask for clarification.
Answer:
Yes, Usamah did not intend to kill him; he did not intend to kill him. Rather, he thought he had said it to ward off the sword, and he was a disbeliever who remained in his disbelief. So he was exercising independent legal reasoning in this, may Allah be pleased with him. He acted based on his independent legal reasoning, but he erred in his reasoning. The one who exercises independent legal reasoning may err or be correct, so his killing was a mistake in the sense of an error. Yes. Also, retaliation is only carried out if his relatives demand it; retaliation is carried out when its conditions are met.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you.
Does the fact that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not take retaliation from Usamah indicate that his killing of the man was a mistake? We ask for clarification.
Answer:
Yes, Usamah did not intend to kill him; he did not intend to kill him. Rather, he thought he had said it to ward off the sword, and he was a disbeliever who remained in his disbelief. So he was exercising independent legal reasoning in this, may Allah be pleased with him. He acted based on his independent legal reasoning, but he erred in his reasoning. The one who exercises independent legal reasoning may err or be correct, so his killing was a mistake in the sense of an error. Yes. Also, retaliation is only carried out if his relatives demand it; retaliation is carried out when its conditions are met.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you.
Source
شرح كتاب الكبائر للإمام محمد بن عبد الوهاب، تتمة باب ما جاء في الفتن — islamhouse.com (1:17:05)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.