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 ‘Abbās in the following way:
Execute the
person who changes his faith. (Bokhāri: Kitāb
Istatabat-al-Murtaddīn)
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 consensus among the jurists that
every apostate, man or woman, should be 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 mushriki#n and ummiyyi#n 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
stubbornness 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 Itimām-i-Hujjat
upon his nation, a prophet and his companions not being able to achieve
political ascendancy in some other 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 ‘Ād and Thamūd 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 Itimām-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 ummiyyīn who will not accept faith
until the day of Haj-i-Akbar (9th AH) will be given a final extension by a
proclamation made in the field of ‘Arafāt 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 idolaters 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 Zakāh, 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 Zakāh. If they
accept these terms their lives will be spared except if they commit some other
violation that demands their execution by Islamic law.’ (Bokhāri: Kitāb-al-Imān)
This
law, as we have stated before, is specifically meant for the ummiyyi#n 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 ummiyyīn has been
mentioned in the Qur’ān, adjacent to it has also been stated in unequivocal
terms that the people of the Book shall be spared and granted citizenship if
they pay Jizyah. 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 Jizyah out of
subjugation and lead a life of submission. [9:29]
There is a
natural corollary to this Divine law as obvious as the law itself. As stated
above the death penalty had been imposed upon the ummiyyīn if they did not
accept faith after a certain period. Hence it follows that if a person among the
ummiyyīn 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 ummiyyi#n just as the words ‘the
people’ (Al-Nās) in the tradition quoted earlier are specifically meant for the
ummiyyīn. 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 corollary 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’ (Al-Nās). 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 ummiyyīn
who lived during the prophethood of Mohammad (sws), be they the idolaters or
others like Waraqah Ibn Nawfal, a cousin of the Prophet's wife, Khadījah (raa),
who were originally among the ummiyyīn 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 cannot be
administered any punishment merely on the basis of apostasy.
(Translated
from Ghamidi's ‘Mīzān’)
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