Question :
Question: I`m a 28-year-old married woman and have two children. Two years ago, I went shopping with my husband. As we were coming out of one of the shops, a billboard fell on me breaking my spine and wounding my head. I was rushed to the hospital and after being examined, the doctors said that I was paralyzed for I couldn`t move my legs nor feel them. My family filed charges against the shop owner to obtain compensation, however, my conscience isn`t clear about this. Am I entitled to compensation from that owner although he isn`t the direct cause of the accident as it was an act of God? Assuming that I have the right to claim compensation, how much should it be and is it lawful or not? I need to know the exact amount for my case according to Sharia? Finally, could you invoke Allah to bless me with recovery for the sake of my children?
The Answer :
All perfect praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds. May His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Mohammad and upon all his family and companions.
At the beginning, we pray that Allah the Almighty blesses you with a speedy recovery. Indeed, He hears the supplication of those who invoke Him. We advise you to exercise patience and be content with Allah`s Reward since worldly life is the abode of trial and the Hereafter is better and lasting.
As for your question about the Diya (In Islamic Law, Diya is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the case of murder, bodily harm or property damage), it is lawful for you to take it because the one who hanged that billboard caused that felony leading to disabling parts of your body. Jurists are agreed that it is obligatory to pay full Diya if the committed felony led to disabling the victim`s legs only and its amount increases in case other functions of the body were disabled and wounds sustained. In other words, the amount of Diya depends on the degree of the harm inflicted upon the victim." {Al-Mawsou`a al-Fiqhiyah, vol.16/pp.85}.
According to the Iftaa` Board`s Resolution issued in (1430H), the full Diya is estimated at twenty thousand JDs, so a woman`s Diya is ten thousand JDs since hers is half of a man`s, as agreed by jurists. And Allah The Almighty Knows Best.
