[O you who believe, prescribed for you is retaliation, regarding the slain; a free man, for a free man, and a slave for a slave, and a female for a female. But if anything is pardoned any one in relation to his brother, let the pursuing be honourable. And let the payment to him be with kindliness; that is an alleviation given by your Lord, and a mercy; and for him who commits aggression after that - his is a painful chastisement].
Retaliation is a law based on principles of justice, prescribed to remove the aggressions of the predatorial faculty, being a shadow of His justice, exalted be He, so that if He dispenses [of this] to a servant of His by annihilating him, He compensates him the 'free man' of his spirit with a better spirit divinely-endowed and [compensates him] the slave of his heart with a heart divinely-endowed and the female of his soul with a divinely-endowed soul that is perfect.