Studies in Moro History, Law, and Religion Part 13

Article x.x.xVIII

If a married woman commits adultery, both adulterer and adulteress shall suffer eighty lashes. If the lashes are changed or reduced to a fine, half the number of the woman's lashes shall be added to the man's fine.

Article x.x.xIX

If a person charges another with the payment of his debt, and the creditor sues the proxy for the unpaid debt, but the proxy claims to have paid the same, the creditor's statement shall be sustained if confirmed by oath.

Article XL

If a man seduces a maiden, both shall suffer one hundred lashes, and the man shall marry the woman and live with her even though he is married.

Article XLI

The statement of the plaintiff shall be sustained if confirmed by a witness. If there is no witness, the defendant shall take an oath.

Article XLII

If slaves commit adultery, both man and woman shall suffer fifty lashes.

Article XLIII

If a married man commits adultery with a free woman, both shall be stoned to death. The punishment of the man may be reduced to imprisonment. The woman shall be buried up to her chest and be stoned with medium-sized stones.

Article XLIV

If a free man seduces a maiden slave, the property of another person, and she becomes pregnant and dies during childbirth, the seducer shall then pay the value of the slave to her owner.

Article XLV

If a bachelor or widower commits adultery and is killed by a non-Mohammedan, the non-Mohammedan shall be put to death. But a Mohammedan who may kill such an adulterer shall not be put to death.

Article XLVI

If a man recognizes his cattle or his trees in another's charge and notifies him of the fact, and has a witness to confirm his statement that the cattle or trees are his, he shall be ent.i.tled to the produce of the cattle or of the trees although they remain in the charge of the other. Likewise, if a slave who has been lost is recognized by his master in the charge of another person, and the master of the slave notifies that person of the fact that the slave is his and has a witness to confirm his statement, he shall be ent.i.tled to whatever his slave may produce if he remains in the charge of the person aforesaid.

Article XLVII

If a man rents a field of another with the intention of cultivating it, but later fails to do so and returns it to the owner thereof, he shall be liable for the rent and shall pay the same at harvest time, as though he had cultivated the land and reaped the produce. Likewise, if a boat is hired, the hire thereof shall be paid to its owner, whether or not it has been used for the intended travel.

Article XLVIII

If a slave runs away and enters the house of a certain person, or if a person finds a runaway slave, the owner of which is known to him but to whom he fails to give notice of the fact, and the slave again runs away, he, the finder, shall be responsible for the slave to the owner thereof.

Article XLIX

If a married man leaves his home on a long journey and nothing is heard of him, his wife shall not have the right to marry another; but if she learns that he has died or that he has divorced her, she shall then wait four years, after which she shall observe the customary mourning for his death; then she may marry again. The judges shall be careful not to change this decree in order that their power and influence may not suffer.

Article L

If a boat is in danger of sinking, it shall be right and proper to throw its cargo overboard. But if a man throws away property without the knowledge of the owner thereof, and the boat does not sink, he shall replace the property. If a person tells another to throw his property overboard, promising to replace it, and the property is thrown overboard but the boat does not sink, he shall replace the property; but where there has been no promise to replace the property he shall not be held liable.

Article LI

Section 1. If a debtor dies, his debts shall be payable from his estate, his estate being regarded in the nature of a security.

Sec. 2. If a debtor dies and leaves no estate, his heirs shall not be liable for his debt. By heirs is here meant parents, children, brothers, sisters, grandchildren, or grandparents.

Sec. 3. If a debtor dies and leaves an estate to his heirs, the estate shall be expended in payment of his debts whether it is sufficient in amount or not.

Sec. 4. If the heirs divide their inheritance before they know of the existence of a claim for debt against the estate, they shall return their shares to pay the debt, whether the inheritance is sufficient or not; and if they have used their inheritance prior to the knowledge of the debt, they shall pay out of their own property an amount equal thereto in payment of the debt.

Article LII

If a man orders another to shoot at a deer, believing that he is ordering him to shoot at a deer, and the person shoots believing also that he is shooting at a deer, but hits a man, neither the shooter nor the man who has ordered him to shoot shall be liable to punishment, but shall pay only a light fine as blood money. Likewise, if a man orders another to shoot at a tree, believing that he is ordering him to shoot at a tree, and the person shoots, believing also that he is shooting at a tree, but hits a man, neither the shooter nor the man who has ordered him to shoot shall be liable to punishment, but shall pay only a light fine as blood money.

Article LIII

In case a person orders another person to climb up a tree and the climber falls from the tree, there shall be no liability to punishment, whether the person dies or not. A medium fine only shall be paid as blood money.

Article LIV

If a female slave in the possession of a certain person has a child which is recognized by another person as his own child and born of the slave during her stay in his possession, and the claim is denied by her present owner and there is a witness to the truth of the claim, the plaintiff shall confirm his testimony by oath. Failure to confirm this testimony by oath and the lack of conclusive evidence that the child is a free child, begotten by the plaintiff of the slave, shall render the claim null.

Article LV

If a man recognizes a slave whom he has liberated in the possession of another man who denies the claim, and there is a witness who bears out the claim of the plaintiff, the plaintiff shall confirm his statement by an oath, and, having taken an oath, may recover his slave and reliberate him. But his statement shall not be sustained if an oath is not taken.

Article LVI

Section 1. If two persons enter into partners.h.i.+p and later one of them asks the other to sell the property or stock and divide the proceeds, and the property is sold and its amount received, but the seller claims the whole amount as his, to which the other partner objects on the ground that it belongs to the partners.h.i.+p; or if the seller claims that it belongs to the partners.h.i.+p, and the other partner claims that it is his own, the statement of the person in possession of the property or its price shall be sustained if confirmed by oath; but otherwise it shall be rejected.