Except by right, except in one of three cases: except that you disbelieve, or kill a believer intentionally, or commit adultery after being chaste. If he is wronged and not one of those three applies to him, then his guardian, who has a kinship that necessitates demanding his blood, has the right. If he has no guardian, then the ruler is his guardian, a ruler who has authority over the killer in exacting retribution from him. Or he has evidence to establish against him, so let not the guardian be excessive. That is: let him not kill anyone other than the killer, nor two when the killer is one, as was the custom of ignorance: when they killed one of them, they would kill many in return, until Muhellal said when he killed Bujair ibn al-Harith ibn Abbad: 'Be like the strap of Kulayb's sandal.' And he said: 'Every killed person in Kulayb is a servant until the killing reaches the family of Murrah.' They would kill someone other than the killer if there was no equivalence. It was said: excess is mutilation. Abu Muslim, the owner of the state, read: 'So let him not be excessive,' in the nominative as it is a statement in the meaning of a command. In it is an emphasis that is not in the command. And from Mujahid: the pronoun refers to the first killer. And it was read: 'So let him not be excessive,' addressing the guardian or the killer of the wronged. In the reading of Ubayy: 'So do not be excessive,' it is a response to: 'And do not kill.' Indeed, he has been supported; the pronoun is either for the guardian, meaning it is enough for him that Allah has supported him by making retribution obligatory for him, so he should not seek more than that, and that Allah has supported him by the assistance of the ruler and by making the believers prevail in fulfilling the right, so let him not seek beyond his right. Or it is for the wronged, because Allah has supported him and where He made retribution obligatory for his killing, and He will support him in the Hereafter with reward. Or it is for the one whom the guardian kills unjustly and is excessive in killing him, for he is supported by making retribution obligatory on the excessive.