Aden Government Manipulates God's Law Regarding the Blood Money for a Believer's Soul!
Ministerial Circular No. (9) for the year 2025 AD (The Ministry of Justice in Aden, headed by Minister Badr Abdo Ahmed Al-Aarada, announced the amendment of the amount of blood money and its increase from 5.5 million riyals to 30 million Yemeni riyals, as part of what it described as "updating the Penal Code") issued by the General Office of the Ministry on 3 Rabi' al-Akhir 1447 AH, corresponding to September 25, 2025 AD.
The crime of legislating with something other than what God has revealed is as clear as the sun in the sky. Those who try to justify it for these rulers cannot find anything to defend them with. Look at how such legislations are issued in the name of a state that calls itself "legitimate"? What legitimacy are they singing about? Where is the legitimacy of governance if God's law is absent? How dare those who claim to represent the state fragment God's limits and tamper with definitive, established rulings?! About raising the amount of blood money from five and a half million to thirty million Yemeni riyals, in an amendment that is being promoted as a legislative achievement and legal development?!
This increase is nothing compared to the legitimate blood money that God has ordained in His Holy Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet ﷺ, which is estimated at one thousand gold dinars, and a Sharia gold dinar equals 4.25 grams, meaning that it is equivalent today in the currency circulating in the areas of the Aden government (1000 * 4.25 = 4250 grams of gold). Since the price of a gram of gold today in Aden is 183858, the amount of blood money is 4250 * 183858 = 781,396,500 riyals. On the authority of Abu Bakr bin Muhammad bin Amr bin Hazm, from his father, from his grandfather: that the Messenger of God ﷺ wrote a letter to the people of Yemen, and in his letter was: «Whoever deliberately kills a believer with proof, then he is subject to retaliation, unless the relatives of the murdered person are satisfied, and for the soul there is a hundred camels, and for the nose, if it is completely severed, there is blood money, and for the tongue there is blood money, and for the two lips there is blood money, and for the two testicles there is blood money, and for the penis there is blood money, and for the spine there is blood money, and for the two eyes there is blood money, and for one foot there is half the blood money, and for the penetrating wound that reaches the brain there is one-third of the blood money, and for the wound that reaches the abdominal cavity there is one-third of the blood money, and for the bone-breaking wound there are fifteen camels, and for each finger of the hand and foot there are ten camels, and for the tooth there are five camels, and for the wound that exposes the bone there are five camels, and the man is killed for the woman, and the people of gold [must pay] a thousand dinars.» Narrated by Al-Nasa'i. Thus, the "increase" approved by the Aden government is merely a smokescreen to beautify the crime of legislating with something other than what God has revealed. Is it permissible in Sharia to subject the believing soul to political bargaining or economic justifications?!
The situation in the Aden government is no different from the one in Sana'a, represented by the Houthi authority. It is following the path of the defunct regime in these legislations, which are equivalent to only one part out of forty-three parts of the blood money that God has imposed, under a laughable and weeping pretext at the same time, which is "the killer's inability to pay the blood money"!
What kind of justice is this that takes into account the circumstances of the killer and ignores the rights of the victim's family?! What logic suspends God's ruling under the pretext of poverty, when poverty itself is the result of the corruption of those authorities that claim mercy and trample on justice, and do not rule according to what God has revealed?! The incapacitated killer is no better off than hundreds of thousands of subjects who cannot find enough to sustain themselves. Do we rule for them as they wish and deprive the victim's relatives of what God has ordained for them?!
Blood money is not a financial fine or conditional compensation, but rather a definitive Sharia ruling, a divine mercy, a financial right due to the victim's family, and a means of preserving blood and deterring aggressors.
But the authorities in Aden and Sana'a, instead of preserving this obligation, have persisted in wasting it, trampling on the right of the victim and his family, and reducing the blood money to an amount that is not enough for the simplest requirements of life, at a time when the prices of goods are doubling, and state funds are being squandered on allegiances and political benefits.
The blood of a Muslim has become the cheapest thing in this country, his soul is shed and its value is estimated at less than the price of a responsible official's furniture or an escort car!
Whoever legislates this injustice under any name: government, legitimacy, state, or Quranic march, is outside the requirements of Sharia, a traitor to the trust of governance, transgressing the limits of God, and neglecting the most sacred thing that Islam has forbidden: the human soul.
We emphasize that:
1- This amendment is a violation of Islamic law and a negation of the obligation to rule according to what God has revealed. Reducing blood money is a flagrant violation of Sharia, which cannot be justified by inability or crisis.
2- Whoever permitted the reduction of blood money today, permitted the blood of the nation yesterday in the name of the law. No entity on earth has the right to suspend a definitive ruling from the rulings of God.
3- Demanding the implementation of God's law, including the hudud and felonies, including the full Sharia blood money, is not a religious luxury, but rather a Sharia obligation and divine justice that does not fall with market fluctuations or government budgets. Dignity can only be restored by ruling according to what God has revealed, not by fabricated legislation or temporary solutions.
Those who underestimate the blood of a Muslim today will be held accountable by God tomorrow, and whoever rules with something other than what God has revealed has ruled upon himself the fall of legitimacy, no matter what he claims. ﴿Do they seek the judgment of [the time of] ignorance? But who is better than Allah in judgment for a people who are certain?﴾.
Blood money in Islam is not negotiable, so who authorized these people to change this text? And who gave the Ministry of Justice the right to tamper with one of God's limits?
Where are the scholars of Sharia? Where are the parties? Has the blood of a Muslim become cheaper than the furniture in some officials' offices?! Is this a state that values the blood of a Muslim at a price less than a used car? Whoever legislates against what God has revealed, whether in Sana'a or Aden, betrays his religion before he betrays his nation, and there is no difference between one who rules in the name of the "Quranic march" and contradicts the Quran, and one who rules in the name of "legitimacy" and betrays the Sharia.
The authority that legislates against what God has revealed is an illegitimate authority, even if it wears the cloak of "legitimacy" or "state" or "law". If you are sincere in the slogans of "justice" and "legitimacy", return to the law of God, for it is more worthy of being followed. God Almighty said: ﴿And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - then it is those who are the disbelievers﴾.
Written for the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Abd al-Mahmoud al-Amiri - Yemen Province