What does Islam say about honor killing?

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So-called honor killings take thousands of lives every year, most of them women and girls, killed by a father, brother, or husband who believes his family’s name has been shamed. Some of the killers claim religion as their cover. The Quran and the Sunnah leave no room for that claim. Honor killing is haram. It is murder, among the gravest sins a human being can commit, and Islam came into the world to end the very practice of killing daughters for the sake of family pride.

Is honor killing allowed in Islam?

No. The Quran sets the sanctity of every human life in words addressed to all humanity:

مَن قَتَلَ نَفۡسَۢا بِغَيۡرِ نَفۡسٍ أَوۡ فَسَادٖ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعٗا وَمَنۡ أَحۡيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَآ أَحۡيَا ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعٗا

“Whoever kills a soul, unless for a soul or for corruption in the land, it is as if he had killed all of humanity; and whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved all of humanity.”

Quran 5:32

“Do not kill the soul that Allah has made sacred,” the Quran commands, “except by right” (Quran 17:33). A daughter who chose a husband, a sister who refused a marriage, a son who is gay, a wife suspected of an affair: none of these takes away the sacredness Allah gave their lives. No verse and no sound hadith gives a family the right to kill one of its own.

What did the Prophet ﷺ say about a husband’s anger?

The question came to the Prophet ﷺ directly. Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda, a chief of the Anṣār, asked him about a man who finds another man with his wife:

«أَرَأَيْتَ الرَّجُلَ يَجِدُ مَعَ امْرَأَتِهِ رَجُلاً أَيَقْتُلُهُ» … «لاَ»

“What of a man who finds another man with his wife: should he kill him?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “No.”

Sahih Muslim 1498a

In another narration Saʿd asked whether he must wait until he could bring four witnesses, and the Prophet ﷺ answered: “Yes” (Sahih Muslim 1498b). Even at the moment of greatest provocation, the hand of the individual is held back.

The Quran also provides for a husband who suspects his wife and has no witnesses. He swears a solemn oath four times and a fifth, she may answer with oaths of her own, and the couple are separated (24:6–9). The procedure, called liʿān, ends a marriage. No blood is shed.

How does the Quran protect a woman’s honor?

The Quran guards honor by guarding women from accusation. Anyone who accuses a chaste woman of adultery without four witnesses is to be punished and never trusted as a witness again:

وَٱلَّذِينَ يَرۡمُونَ ٱلۡمُحۡصَنَٰتِ ثُمَّ لَمۡ يَأۡتُواْ بِأَرۡبَعَةِ شُهَدَآءَ فَٱجۡلِدُوهُمۡ ثَمَٰنِينَ جَلۡدَةٗ وَلَا تَقۡبَلُواْ لَهُمۡ شَهَٰدَةً أَبَدٗاۚ وَأُوْلَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلۡفَٰسِقُونَ

“Those who accuse chaste women and then do not bring four witnesses: flog them eighty lashes, and never accept their testimony again. They are the corrupt.”

Quran 24:4

In the Quran, the one who stains a woman’s name is the wrongdoer. Gossip, rumor, and suspicion, the usual sparks of honor violence, are themselves the sin. And punishment, wherever the law prescribes one, belongs to a court with strict proof, never to a family; the classical punishments are in any case not for application today (What are hudud punishments?).

Did Islam end the killing of daughters?

Before Islam, some Arabs buried newborn daughters alive out of shame. The Quran describes such a father: when he is told he has a daughter, “his face darkens with grief; he hides from people because of the shame of the news. Shall he keep her in humiliation or bury her in the dust? How evil is their judgment!” (16:58–59). On the Day of Judgment, it says, the buried girl herself will be asked:

وَإِذَا ٱلۡمَوۡءُۥدَةُ سُئِلَتۡ ﴿٨﴾ بِأَيِّ ذَنۢبٖ قُتِلَتۡ ﴿٩﴾

“And when the girl buried alive is asked, for what sin she was killed.”

Quran 81:8–9

Honor killing is that same pre-Islamic logic of shame, and the Quran gives the victim the voice on the Last Day.

The Sunnah also gives women the decisions that honor violence tries to take from them. When Khansāʾ bint Khidhām’s father married her to a man she did not want, the Prophet ﷺ annulled the marriage (Sahih al-Bukhari 5138; see Is forced marriage allowed in Islam?). He said, “The best of you are those who are best to their women” (Jami’ al-Tirmidhi 1162, graded hasan sahih).

Why do honor killings still happen?

Honor killings come from custom. The Council of Europe stated in 2003 that such crimes “emanate from cultural and not religious roots,” and they occur across cultures and religions, among Hindu and Sikh families as well as Muslim ones. Many Muslim scholars and organizations condemn them as a cultural practice foreign to Islam, among them Ali Gomaa, a former Grand Mufti of Egypt. After the model Qandeel Baloch was strangled by her brother in 2016, Pakistan’s parliament passed a law requiring prison for honor killers even when relatives forgive them.

Parents who feel fear or shame over a child’s choices have a path the Sunnah blesses: patience, conversation, counsel, and above all keeping the bond of family. A child’s marriage, faith, or sexuality never permits violence or cutting them off (Is it permissible to disown your child for being gay?; What does Islam say about domestic violence?).

Honor in the sight of Allah

The Quran names where true honor lies: “The most honored of you in the sight of Allah is the most mindful of Him” (49:13). Family honor is kept by mercy, justice, and protection of the weak. May Allah protect every daughter, sister, wife, and son who lives in fear, and soften the hearts of every family toward its own.