Islam > Glossary > Alqtl alkhta
Discover the meaning of the term Alqtl alkhta (قتل الخطأ) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readWith the Hanafis, the Shafi'is, the Ja'faris, and the Ibadis: it is intending by the act a locus other than that intended by the aggression, as one who shoots at game and hits a human being; except that the Ibadis call this 'error resembling intent' (al-khata' ash-shabih bil-'amd). With the Hanbalis and the Zahiris: like the first view; or: killing in the land of war one whom he takes for a disbeliever while he is a Muslim. Al-khi'' : the fault, or what is committed deliberately of it (plural akhta'); in the Qur'an: 'do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We provide for them and for you; killing them is a great fault' (al-Isra', 31). Al-khati'a: the khi'' (plural khataya). With some scholars: the disobedience between man and God Most High.
That in which the intent to strike is present but the intent to kill is not: like one who strikes a man with his hand in discipline and the struck man dies, or who strikes an animal and hits a man who dies. (Accidental homicide.) The institutive address (khitab al-wad'): what, through the Lawgiver's stipulation, yields identifying knowledge, as the effective cause ('illa), for His ruling, since knowing His address at a given moment is impossible: God's address consisting in making a thing the cause of another, or its condition, or its preventer.