diyya means A financial compensation paid, under sharia law, to the victim or their heirs in cases of homicide, bodily harm, or property damage (in some cases the victim side must accept this payment, while in others it can insist on talion instead). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
DIYAH — [Noun] A compensatory payment mandated under Islamic jurisprudence, rendered to victims or their heirs for homicide, bodily injury, or property damage. From Arabic دِيَة (diya, "compensation, blood money"). Unlike the tribal *wergeld* of Germanic custom or the raw symmetry of *retribution*, diyah is a calibrated, monetized mercy woven into a divine legal code—a ledger of life and limb designed to settle accounts and forestall vengeance. It is the heavy purse of gold coins counted out on a magistrate’s table, the transfer of camels shifting dust in a desert courtyard, the formal document that spares a hand from amputation for a wound. This is the law's grim arithmetic, substituting a debt that can be paid for a loss that cannot be undone.
noun
- A financial compensation paid, under sharia law, to the victim or their heirs in cases of homicide, bodily harm, or property damage (in some cases the victim side must accept this payment, while in others it can insist on talion instead).