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-Hujjat1 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’)
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 Rasu#l has a specific connotation which is different from the one implied by the word Nabiy.___________________
1. The unveiling of truth by a prophet to the extent that no one has an excuse to deny it.