The ruling on one who caused an accident in which people died
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Question:
I was driving my car outside the city of Riyadh, with two people with me, and it was the will of Allah that an accident occur, in which one of the passengers died. The question is: Is it obligatory for me to fast for the period of two months, given that the results of the investigation by the traffic authorities have not yet concluded, and the session for the legal ruling has not taken place due to the procedures for determining inheritance, and given that the driver of the other car is not a Muslim?
Answer:
The Shaykh: The accident varies: if the accident incriminates the owner of the car and makes him the cause, then the blood money and the expiation are upon him. If it incriminates both of them—the ones who collided—then the blood money is upon both of them, and the expiation is upon each one. The expiation does not get divided. So if one person is 50% responsible, the blood money is between them, and each one has an independent expiation, which is freeing a believing slave. If he does not find one, he fasts for two consecutive months, each one of them. As for if he did not cause it, but the cause was 100% from the other one, from one of them, then the blood money is upon the one who caused it, and the expiation is upon him.
If they collide and the traffic authority decides that the transgression was from one of them, then the sin is upon him, and the expiation and the blood money are upon him, not upon the other one who did not cause it, or who was extremely careful. He did not do anything; for example, he was walking the usual walk, and did not cross the roads marked for him, and did not do what would necessitate this accident. But Allah willed something else upon him, such as a tire bursting, or something breaking, or something similar to these matters that are not within his capacity or choice. In this case, nothing is required of him; nothing is upon him if this is established. For example, one who walks on a mount in the usual manner, and the mount stumbles and he falls, or he and those with him fall, nothing is upon them because they did not do anything that would necessitate that.
As a completion of this question: Nothing is upon you until the trial concludes, until the ruling is decided, until you know whether anything is upon you or not. You wait until the matter is completed.
I was driving my car outside the city of Riyadh, with two people with me, and it was the will of Allah that an accident occur, in which one of the passengers died. The question is: Is it obligatory for me to fast for the period of two months, given that the results of the investigation by the traffic authorities have not yet concluded, and the session for the legal ruling has not taken place due to the procedures for determining inheritance, and given that the driver of the other car is not a Muslim?
Answer:
The Shaykh: The accident varies: if the accident incriminates the owner of the car and makes him the cause, then the blood money and the expiation are upon him. If it incriminates both of them—the ones who collided—then the blood money is upon both of them, and the expiation is upon each one. The expiation does not get divided. So if one person is 50% responsible, the blood money is between them, and each one has an independent expiation, which is freeing a believing slave. If he does not find one, he fasts for two consecutive months, each one of them. As for if he did not cause it, but the cause was 100% from the other one, from one of them, then the blood money is upon the one who caused it, and the expiation is upon him.
If they collide and the traffic authority decides that the transgression was from one of them, then the sin is upon him, and the expiation and the blood money are upon him, not upon the other one who did not cause it, or who was extremely careful. He did not do anything; for example, he was walking the usual walk, and did not cross the roads marked for him, and did not do what would necessitate this accident. But Allah willed something else upon him, such as a tire bursting, or something breaking, or something similar to these matters that are not within his capacity or choice. In this case, nothing is required of him; nothing is upon him if this is established. For example, one who walks on a mount in the usual manner, and the mount stumbles and he falls, or he and those with him fall, nothing is upon them because they did not do anything that would necessitate that.
As a completion of this question: Nothing is upon you until the trial concludes, until the ruling is decided, until you know whether anything is upon you or not. You wait until the matter is completed.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.