In Islamic terminology, apostasy means the rejection and
renunciation of faith by a Muslim. In our Fiqh, the punishment for apostasy is
death. The tradition upon which the verdict is based is narrated by
Ibn-i-’Abbaas in the following way:
"Execute the person who changes his faith." (Bukhārī:
Kitāb ul Istatabatul-Murtaddeen)
Our jurists regard this verdict to have a general
application for all times upon every Muslim who renounces his faith. In their
opinion, this tradition warrants the death penalty for every Muslim who becomes
a disbeliever. In this matter, the only point in which there is a disagreement
among the jurists is whether an apostate should be granted time for repentance,
and if so what should be the extent of this period. The Hanafite jurists though,
exempt women from this punishment. Apart from them, there is a general concensus
among the jurists that very apostate, man or woman, should punished by death.
In our consideration, this opinion of our jurists is not
correct. The verdict pronounced in this tradition does not have a general
application but is only confined to the people towards whom the Prophet(sws) was
directly assigned. The Qur’ān uses the words mushrikeen and ummiyyeen for these
people. We now elaborate upon our view at length.
All of us are well aware about the fact that life has been
endowed to us not because it is our right but because it is a trial and a test
for us. Death puts an end to it whenever the period of this test is over, as
deemed by the Almighty. In ordinary circumstances, He fixes the length of this
period on the basis of His knowledge and wisdom. In special circumstances, when
a prophet is assigned towards a nation, the span is governed by another Divine
law which has been explained in the Qur’ān in detail. It is based upon certain
premises which must be understood beforehand. A prophet is the final authority
on this earth about matters which pertain to faith. No other person can
illustrate and explicate the essentials of faith in a better manner. He uses his
extraordinary powers of intellect and reasoning to deliver and disseminate the
truth revealed to him. He exposes the truth in its ultimate form after which a
person can have no excuse but stubborness and enmity to deny it. We have
indicated before that God’s purpose in endowing life to people is to test
whether they accept and uphold the truth when it comes to them. In these special
circumstances, the truth is unveiled to them in its purest form by no other a
personality than a prophet. If they then deny it, there is no possibility
whatsoever that a further extension in life can induce them to accept it. It is
at this juncture that the Divine law sanctions the death sentence for them.
The sentence is enforced upon them in one of the two ways
depending upon the situation which arises. In the first case, after performing
Itmām-i-Hujjat upon his nation, a
prophet and his companions not being able to achieve political ascendancy in
someother territory migrate from their people. In this case, Divine punishment
descends upon them in the form of raging storms, cyclones and other divinely
ordained disasters which completely destroy them. Historically speaking, the
tribes of ‘Aad and Thamud and the people of Noah and Lot besides many other
nations met with this dreadful fate, as has been mentioned in the Qur’ān. In the
second case, a prophet and his companions are able to acquire political
ascendancy in a land where after performing Itmaam-i-Hujjat upon their people
they migrate. In this case, a prophet subdues his nation by force, and executes
them if they do not accept faith. It was this situation which had arisen in the
case of our Prophet(sws). On account of this God bade him to declare that the
people among the ummiyyeen who will not accept faith until the day of Hajj-i-Akbar
(9th Hijra) will be given a final extension by a proclamation made in the field
of ‘Arafaat on that day. According to the proclamation, this final extension
would end with the last day of the month of Moharram, during which they must
accept faith, or face execution at the end of this period. The Qur’ān says:
"When the forbidden months are over slay the idolators
wherever you find them. Seize them, surround them and every where lie in ambush
for them. But if they repent and establish regular prayers and pay zakat, then
spare their lives. God is oft-forgiving and ever merciful." [9:5]
A tradition illustrates this law in the following manner:
"I have been ordained to fight against these people
until they testify to the oneness of God and assent to my Prophethood, establish
regular prayers and pay zakat. If they accept these terms their lives will be
spared except if they commit some other violation that demands their execution
by Islamic law." (Bokhari: Kitab-ul-Iman)
This law, as we have stated before, is specifically meant
for the ummiyyeen or the people towards whom our Prophet(sws) was directly
assigned. Apart from them, it has no bearing upon any other person or nation. So
much so that even the people of the Book who were present in the Prophet’s times
were exempted from this law by the Qur’ān. Consequently, where the death penalty
for the ummiyyeen has been mentioned in the Qur’ān, adjacent to it has also been
stated in uniquivocal terms that the people of the Book shall be spared and
granted citizenship if they pay Jizya. We quote from the Qur’ān:
"Fight against those among the people of the Book who
believe not in God nor in the last day, and who do not forbid what God and his
prophet have forbidden and do not accept the religion of truth as their own
religion, until they pay Jizya out of subjugation and lead a life of
submission." [9:29]
There is a natural corollory to this Divine law as obvious
as the law itself. As stated above the death penalty had been imposed upon the
ummiyyeen if they did not accept faith after a certain period. Hence it follows
that if a person among the ummiyyeen after accepting faith reverts to his
original state of disbelief, he must face the same penalty. Indeed it is this
reversion about which the Prophet(sws) has said ‘Execute the person who changes
his faith.’
The relative pronoun ‘who’ in this tradition qualifies the
ummiyyeen just as the words ‘the people’ (An-Naas) in the tradition quoted
earlier are specifically meant for the ummiyyeen. When the basis of this law as
narrated in these traditions exists in the Qur’ān with a certain specification
then quite naturally this specification should be sustained in the corollory of
the law. Our jurists have committed the cardinal mistake of not relating the
relative pronoun ‘who’ with its basis in the Qur’ān as has been done in the case
of ‘the people’ (An-naas). Instead of interpreting the tradition in the light
of the relationship between the Qur’ān and Sunnah they have interpreted it in
the absolute sense, totally against the context of the Qur’ān. Consequently, in
their opinion the verdict pronounced in the tradition has a general and an
unconditional application. They have thereby incorporated in the Islamic Penal
Code a punishment that has no basis in the Sharī’ah.
There is no doubt whatsoever that this death penalty was
prescribed only for the ummiyyeen who lived during the prophethood of Mohammad (sws),
be they the idolators or others like Warqah Ibni Nofal, a cousin of the
Prophet’s wife, Khadijah, who were originally among the ummiyyeen and had later
accepted Judaism or Christianity. It is absolutely evident that now if a Muslim
becomes an apostate and is also not a source of nuisance for an Islamic State,
he connot be administered any punishment merely on the basis of apostasy.
(Translated from Ghamidi’s "Meezaan".)
Note: Throughout this article the word ‘Prophet’ has been
used as a synonym to the Arabic word Rasul because according to the Qur’ān the
word Rasul has a specific connotation which is different from the one implied by
the word Nabi.
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