A Review of Article “Retaliation” in Encyclopedia of the Quran (Leiden)

The present research discusses the translation and analysis of the article “Retaliation” in Encyclopedia of the Quran (Leiden). The article deals with the matters like the meaning of “retaliation”, the proportionality between the crime and the punishment, and the ways of indemnification for murder or physical injury. There is a special position for retaliation in the Quran and Islamic jurisprudence. The word usually means retribution in the Noble Quran. Retaliation is a subject criticized by some researchers of the Quran, Islam scholars, and lawyers for its being against the human rights and they attempt to use it as an instrument to question and cast doubt on the explanatory religion of Islam, while ignoring the preventive dimension of retaliation from committing murder. The Quran 2: 179 “And there is life for you in (the law of) retaliation” is the most obvious sentence to explain the above-mentioned dimension which prevents the murderer, in the case of paying attention to the prescribed punishment, from committing the crime, as a result of which both the life of the person against whom the crime has been committed and the life of the criminal himself and finally the life of the society will be ensured. The most important problem of the article is it's discussing the aforesaid matters about retaliation without paying attention to the relation between the ayas and the juridical rules.