The penalties for wounding or striking a person depend upon the severity of the injury; for each degree the Lord of Judgement hath prescribed a certain indemnity. He is, in truth, the Ordainer, the Mighty, the Most Exalted. We shall, if it be Our Will, set forth these payments in their just degrees -- this is a promise on Our part, and He, verily, is the Keeper of His pledge, the Knower of all things.
Should anyone unintentionally take another’s life, it is incumbent upon him to render to the family of the deceased an indemnity of one hundred mithqáls of gold. Observe ye that which hath been enjoined upon you in this Tablet, and be not of those who overstep its limits.
Ye have been forbidden to commit murderThe prohibition against taking another’s life is repeated by Bahá’u’lláh in paragraph
73 of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Penalties are prescribed for premeditated murder (see note
86). In the case of manslaughter, it is necessary to pay a specified
indemnity to the family of the deceased (see Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
188).
The penalties for wounding or striking a person depend upon the severity of the injury; for each degree the Lord of Judgement hath prescribed a certain indemnity.
While Bahá’u’lláh specified that the extent of the penalty depends upon “the severity of the injury”, there is no record of His having set out the details of the size of the indemnity with regard to each degree of offence. The responsibility to determine these devolves upon the Universal House of Justice.