http://apostasyandislam.blogspot.com/
Apostasy and Islam
"
... Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear
from Error ..." [2:256]
This is Islam's unambiguous
affirmation of freedom of faith, which also applies to changing of
faith. The Qur'an illuminates before the humanity the two highways
[90:10], one of which leads to salvation. Islam is an invitation to
the highway toward salvation, but it is based on FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2007
On Apostasy and Islam:
100+
Notable Islamic Voices affirming the Freedom of Faith
Dr.
Mohammad Omar Farooq
Upper Iowa University
April 2,
2007
[Compilation in Progress; farooqm59@yahoo.com]
Freedom of faith is essential to Islam. Prophets and Messengers of Allah along with their communities had to struggle for their freedom of faith. That Islam is by choice is unambiguously stated in the Qur'an and reflected in the Prophetic legacy. However, throughout history, the issue has been clouded due to mixing the issue of apostasy with treason. Now one of the biggest tools of anti-Islam/anti-Muslim propaganda is based on the issue of apostasy, claiming that Islam does not uphold the freedom of faith. Even our own children are getting confused and many are quietly disavowing our wishy-washy position on as fundamental an issue as freedom of faith/religion.
Undeniably, the traditional position of Muslim scholars and jurists has been that apostasy [riddah] is punishable by death. The longstanding problem of the traditional position, as held by Classical jurists or scholars, can be explained and excused as not being able to see apostasy, an issue of pure freedom of faith and conscience, separate from treason against the community or the state. However, the accumulated experience over the history in terms of abuse of this position about apostasy even against Muslims as well as the changed context of a globally-connected, pluralistic society should help us appreciate the contemporary challenges in light of the Qur'anic norms and the Prophetic legacy. In this context, while the classical misunderstanding about this issue of apostasy is excusable, the position of some of the well-known contemporary scholars is not.
Sayyid
Abul A'la Maududi (commonly known as Maulana Maududi), the late
founder and leader of Jamaat-e-Islami and a leading independent,
revivalist Islamic personality of 20th century, is frequently
referred to for his ardent argument for capital punishment for
apostasy. He argued that there is a broad agreement of the leading
jurists on this issue. He claims:
"To copy the
consecutive writings of all the lawyers from the first to the
fourteenth century A.H. would make our discussion very long. Yet we
cannot avoid mentioning that however much the four Schools of Law may
differ among themselves regarding the various aspects of this
problem, in any case all four Schools without doubt agree on the
point that the punishment of the apostate is execution." [The
Punishment of the Apostate According to Islamic Law]
Such a sweeping claim is misplaced because the alleged agreement is about apostasy-cum-treason, not about solely apostasy. Furthermore, any claim of consensus (ijma) on almost anything should be taken with a great deal of circumspection. [see The Doctrine of Ijma: Is there a consensus?]
Another well-known Muslim scholar and jurist of our time, whom I also generally hold in high regard, is Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi. He asserts: "The duty of the Muslim community — in order to preserve its identity — is to combat apostasy in all its forms and wherefrom it comes, giving it no chance to pervade in the Muslim world." Similar to Maulana Maududi, he also claims ijma on this: "That is why the Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished. ... apostasy is a criminal act." [Apostasy: Major and Minor]
Dr. Al-Qaradawi also fails to separate apostasy from treason. It is unfortunate that such scholars of high repute have shown such serious lapse in recognizing that, as Dr. Irfan Ahmad Khan, a scholar and Qur'anic exegete, argues: "Freedom of faith and religion is meaningless without the freedom to change one's faith."
Then, also there are scholars, even in the USA, who are either wishy-washy or ambivalent in regard to their positions. Some are too much beholden to the traditional views held in the past, right or wrong. Views and positions of scholars and leaders, such as Maududi and al-Qaradawi, not only provide powerful ammunition for propaganda against Islam and Muslims, but also confound the mind of our own community, including our youth, whose discerning mind sees through the double-standard or self-contradiction quite transparently.
While many contemporary Muslim scholars have expressed their views affirming the freedom of faith, the collective voice of Muslims is still feeble and little known. In this write-up we have collated opinions and positions of various Muslim scholars, academics, intellectuals, imams, professionals, community leaders and others on this issue. Even young students are voicing against the double-standard that contradicts the Islamic values and principles.
These voices, representing a broad spectrum of Muslim community/ummah, are tipping the scale of the discourse on this issue in favor of affirming and upholding the pristine Islamic principle about freedom of faith. It also debunks the claim of unanimity (ijma), which was not quite true in the past, and it is even less true in the present.
Some additional explanatory notes: (a) Views of some of the early scholars might not be categorical or without variant reports. However, the excerpts included can be basis for identifying them as the precursors of the contemporary views on this issue. (b) There are (or have been) many scholars, early and contemporary, who hold that in case of apostasy capital punishment is not warranted, but have sanctioned or kept open the possibility of other punishments. Their views have not been included here. (c) There are also scholars who believe that punishment of apostasy is not hadd (mandatory, specified punishment based on the Qur'an or sunnah), but it is subject to ta'zir[discretionary punishment, determined by the proper Islamic judicial system]. In this collection, their views have not been included either.
Before the views and opinions of a broad spectrum of Islamic voices are presented below, two brief statements about apostasy in the Qur'an and in hadith are in order.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Punishment of Apostasy in the Qur'an
As presented in excerpts from numerous sources below, and links to works available online, there is no worldly punishment solely for apostasy [i.e., changing of one's faith/religion] mentioned in the Qur'an.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Punishment of Apostasy in Hadith
Readers are invited/urged to explore a vast amount of resources/links presented at this blog, where scholars authoritatively have shown that none of the hadiths about apostasy is without problem or weakness. Also, there is no hadith confirming punishment or retribution solely for apostasy. In every single case, where punishment has been meted out,riddah involved treason or rebellion. The following is an example of how the Prophet dealt with solely apostasy.
A bedouin gave the Pledge of allegiance to Allah's Apostle for Islam. Then the bedouin got fever at Medina, came to Allah's Apostle and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Cancel my Pledge," But Allah's Apostle refused. Then he came to him (again) and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Cancel my Pledge." But the Prophet refused Then he came to him (again) and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Cancel my Pledge." But the Prophet refused. The bedouin finally went out (of Medina) whereupon Allah's Apostle said, "Medina is like a pair of bellows (furnace): It expels its impurities and brightens and clears its good. [Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 9, #318]
Notably,
as Dr. M. E. Subhani explained in his book:
“This was an
open case of apostasy. But the Prophet neither punished the Bedouin
nor asked anyone to do it. He allowed him to leave Madina. Nobody
harmed him.” [Apostasy in
Islam (New
Delhi, India: Global Media Publications, 2005), pp. 23-24.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Below we present a unique compilation of 100+ notable Islamic voices, who have expressed their views on punishment of Islam. As mentioned earlier, opinions of those scholars, who have vehemently rejected or repudiated capital punishment of apostasy but have left room for punishment - discretionary or otherwise - of apostasy, also have not been included here.
We will continue to update this collection. If you know of anyone whose publicly articulated position is missing from this compilation, please let us know [with relevant citation].
Hadrat
Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz [d.
97 AH/720 AD]
[popularly known as Umar II and regarded as part
of the Khulafa-i-Rashidoon]
Some people accepted Islam
during the period of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, who is called the fifth
rightful caliph of Islam. All these people renounced Islam sometimes
later. Maimoon bin Mahran the governor of the area wrote to the
caliph about these people. In
reply Umar bin Abdul Aziz ordered him to release those people and
asked him to re-impose jizya on them.
[Musannaf Abdur Razzaq,
pp. 171-10, cited in M. E. Subhani,Apostasy in Islam (New Delhi,
India: Global Media Publications, 2005), pp. 23-24. Abdur Razzaq ibn
Humama (d. 211 AH). This is the earliest musannaf (a hadith
collection arranged in topical chapters) work in existence.]
Ibrahim
al-Nakha'i [d.
95 AH]
[a leading jurist and traditionist among the generation
succeeding the Companions]
According to al-Nakha'i,
apostate should be re-invited to Islam, but
should never be condemned to death.
[He] maintained the view that the invitation should continue for as
long as there is hope that the apostate might change his mind and
repent. [referred to in Chapter: Freedom
of Religion in
Mohammad Hashim Kamali’s Freedom of Expression in Islam Islamic
Text Society, 1997]
Sufyan
al-Thawri [d.
161 AH]
[known as 'the prince of the believers concerning
Hadith' (amir al-mu'minin
fi'l-Hadith) and is the author of
two important compilations of Hadith, namely al-Jami'
al-Kabir, and al-Jami'
al- Saghir]
According to
al-Thawri, apostate should be re-invited to Islam, but should
never be condemned to death. [He]
maintained the view that the invitation should continue for as long
as there is hope that the apostate might change his mind and repent.
[cited in Kamali, as above]
Shams
al-Din al-Sarakhsi [d.
389 AH]
[An eminent Hanafi jurist and author of al-Mabsut]
"The
prescribed penalties (Hudud) are generally not suspended because of
repentance, especially when they are reported and become known to the
head of state (imam). The punishment of highway robbery, for
instance, is not suspended because of repentance; it is suspended
only by the return of property to the owner prior to arrest. ...
Renunciation of the faith and conversion to disbelief is admittedly
the greatest of offenses, yet it is a matter between man and his
Creator, and its punishment is postponed to the day of judgment
(fa'l-jaza' 'alayha mu'akhkhar ila
dar al-jaza'). Punishments that are
enforced in this life are those which protect the people's interests,
such as just retaliation, which is designed to protect life."
[al-Mabsut,
X, p. 110, quoted in Kamali cited above.]
Abu
Al-Walid Al-Baji [d.
474 AH]
[a noted Maliki jurist; a contemporary of Imam Ibn
Hazm]
... observed that apostasy is a sin which carries no
prescribed penalty (hadd), and that such a sin may only be punished
under the discretionary punishment of ta'zir ... [mentioned in Kamali
cited above]
Imam
Abu 'Abdullah Al-Qurtubi [d.
1273 AD]
[Eminent Malike Scholar of hadith and
fiqh]
"Al-Samara'i in his comment on this verse
(an-Nahl:107) has quoted from Qurtubi's al-Jami the remark that the
verse conveys an admonition that the wrath of Allah will be incurred
by the apostate but there is no hint of any other punishment."
[S. A. Rahman's Punishment of Apostasy in Islam, p. 47, referring to
Nu'man 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Samara'i. Ahkam al-Murtadd fi al-Shari'at
al-Islamiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Arabiyyahya lil-Taba'at wal
Nashr wal-Tauzi, 1968]
Abu
Hayyan al-Andalusi [d.
1355 AD]
[Maliki scholar and author of Qur'anic
commentary Bahrul
Muhit]
"Ibn Hayyan,
a well-known exegetist, has expressly mentioned a definite opinion
that no apostate can be coerced into rejoining the Muslim community."
[mentioned in S. A. Rahman,Punishment
of Apostasy in Islam, India, Kitab
Bhaban, 1996, p. 55]
Ibn
al-Hammam al-Hanafi [14th
century AD]
[Eminent scholar]
"There is no
punishment for the act of apostay, for its punishment is greater than
that, with God." [mentioned in S. A. Rahman, Punishment
of Apostasy in Islam, India, Kitab
Bhaban, 1996, p. 45, citing Sharh
Fath al-Qadir with
commentary by Chalpi on Fath
al-Qadir, Vol. IV, pp. 388-9]
Shaikh
Rashid Rida [1865-1935]
[Eminent
Islamic scholar; disciple of Afghani/Abduh]
"This
verse reaffirms the one which occurs in Surat al-Baqarah (II:256),
and both proscribe compulsion in religion. Both of these passages
proclaim and uphold that people are free to pursue religious beliefs
of their own choosing. No one is to be compelled to abandon the
religion he professes nor must anyone be exposed to punishment and
torture for the sake of religion." [quoted in chapter Freedom
of religion by
Dr. Mohammad Hashim Kamali's Freedom
of Expression in Islam, Islamic
Text Society, 1997]
Maulana
Muhammad Ali Jauhar [1878-1931]
[Indian
author, scholar and a leading figure of the Khilafat Movement]
"M.
Muhammad Ali Jauhar had, it seems, sponsored the thesis that Islam
did not sanction any punishment for apostasy." [mentioned in S.
A. Rahman, Punishment
of Apostasy in Islam,
India, Kitab Bhaban, 1996, p. 6]
Shaikh
Mahmud Shaltut [1893-1963]
[A
prominent Egyptian Islamic scholar. He was the shaykh or grand imam,
i.e. the leader, of Al-Azhar Islamic Institute in Egypt from 1958 to
1963]
"Mahmud Shaltut analyses the relevant evidence
in the Qur'an and draws the conclusion that apostasy carries no
temporal penalty, and that in reference to this particular sin, the
Qur'an speaks only of punishment in the hereafter ..."
[mentioned in chapter Freedom
of religion by
Dr. Mohammad Hashim Kamali's Freedom of Expression in Islam, Islamic
Text Society, 1997., Shaltut, al-Islam
‘Aqidah wa-Shari’ah,
pp. 292-93; al-Samara'i,
Ahkam al-Murtadd fi al-Shari’ah al-Islamiyyah,
p. 114 f]
Subhi
Mahmassani
[An outstanding
Islamic scholar and jurist from Lebanon; author of The Philosophy of
Jurisprudence in Islam, 1961]
Mahmassani has observed that
the death penalty was meant to apply, not to simple acts of apostasy
from Islam, but when apostasy was linked to an act of political
betrayal of the community .The Prophet never killed anyone solely for
apostasy. This being the case, the death penalty was not meant to
apply to a simple change of faith but to punish acts such as treason,
joining forces with the enemy and sedition. [Arkan
Huquq al-Insan fi l-Islam (Bases
of Human Rights in Islam), Beirut: Dar al-‘Ilm li-l-Malayin,
1979, cited in Kamali, as above]
Shaykh
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi
[Grand
Imam of al-Azhar since 1996]
"Shaykh Tantawi's ruling
on the subject of a Muslim apostasizing has certainly shed new light
on this subject, while making the non-Muslims realise that Islam is a
religion of moderation. To Shaykh Tantawi, a Muslim who renounced his
faith or turned apostate should be left alone as long as he does not
pose a threat or belittle Islam. If the Muslims were forced to take
action against the apostate, he said it should NOT be because he or
she had given up the faith but because he or she had turned out to be
an enemy or a threat to Islam. Shaykh Tantawi, in his views, shows
clearly how simple and moderate Islam is, a religion that is tolerant
and not coercive on anybody. Shaykh Tantawi repeatedly stresses the
need for Muslims to acquire traditional Islamic knowledge as well as
the modern ones so that they could add to the strength of the Muslim
community to defend the religion." [Introduction
of Grand Imams of Al-Azhar]
Islamic
Research Department, Al-Azhar
University
"The
Islamic Research Department of Al-Azhar University has called the
penalty for apostasy as null and void and
has said that the ways of repentance are open for the whole life. ...
So an apostate can repent over his mistake anytime during his life
and there would be no fixed period for it." [Al-Alamul
Islami, the weekly organ of Rabita
Alam al-Islami, 23rd August 2002,
quoted in Dr. M. E. Subhani, Global Media Publications, 2005, p. 25]
Dr.
Jamal Badawi
[Professor
Emeritus, St. Mary's University, Canada]
"The
preponderance of evidence from both the Qur'an and Sunnah indicates
that there is no firm ground for the claim that apostasy is in itself
a mandatory fixed punishment (hadd), namely capital punishment."
[Is
Apostasy a Capital Crime in Islam?"
"when
a man in Madinah apostated from Islam, the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) neither ordered his execution nor punished him
in any other way, and when the man finally left Madinah, the Prophet
(peace and blessings be upon him) never sent anyone to arrest him or
punish him because of his apostasy." [Apostasy-Dialogue
with Dr. Jamal Badawi]
Dr.
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
[Professor
of law at the International Islamic University of Malaysia; author of
Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, 2003 and Freedom of Expression
in Islam, 1994]
"The controversy been exacerbated
further by reliance on the provision in the Sunnah which authorizes
the death penalty for apostasy without due consideration of other
evidence in the Sunnah to the effect that punishment by death was
meant only for apostasy accompanied by hostility and treason. ... The
Prophet did not treat apostasy as a proscribed offense (hadd), but,
on the contrary, pardoned many individuals who had embraced Islam,
then renounced it, and then embraced it again. ... [T]he Qur'an is
consistent in its affirmation of the freedom of belief and it fully
supports the conclusion that the objectives of the Shari ah cannot be
properly fulfilled without granting people the freedom of belief, and
the liberty to express it." [Chapter:Freedom
of Religion in
Mohammad Hashim Kamali’s Freedom of Expression in Islam Islamic
Text Society, 1997]
Dr.
Tariq Ramadan
[Swiss
Muslim Academic and Scholar]
"Q What about apostasy?
What happens if you are born and educated a Muslim but then say: I
have now decided that Islam is not for me. Would you accept that
someone born into a Muslim family has a right to say that they no
longer believe, and that families and communities must respect
that?
A) I have been criticised about this in many
countries. My view is the same as that of Sufyan Al-Thawri, an
8th-century scholar of Islam, who argued that the Koran does not
prescribe death for someone because he or she is changing religion.
Neither did the Prophet himself ever
perform such an act. Many around the Prophet changed religions. But
he never did anything against them. There was an early Muslim,
Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh, who went with the first emigrants from Mecca to
Abyssinia. He converted to Christianity and stayed, but remained
close to Muslims. He divorced his wife, but he was not killed."
[Interview:
Tariq Ramadan]
Ayatullah
Murtadha Mutahari [d.
1979 AD]
[Prominent and influential Iranian scholar, cleric,
academic, and political figure].
The late Ayatollah
Mutahhari highlighted the incompatibility of coercion with the spirit
of Islam, and the basic redundancy of punitive measures in the
propagation of its message. He wrote that it is impossible to force
anyone to acquire the kind of faith that is required by Islam, just
as 'it is not possible to spank a child into solving an arithmetical
problem. His mind and thought must be left free in order that he may
solve it. The Islamic faith is something of this kind. ['Islam and
the Freedom of Thought and Belief’, Al-Tawhid,
p.154, cited in Kamali mentioned above]
Dr.
Hassan Turabi
[Sudanese
Islamic leader and intellectual]
"Q) You believe that
apostasy should not be punishable by death. There has been a recent
case of an Afghan who was about to be killed for apostasy but was
saved under the pretense of mental illness. The case was recognized
internationally as Italy wants to grant him asylum.
A)
There are too many Quranic verses to recite (regarding this). We are
ordered to debate with Christians and Jews except those who are
unjust. We believe in their prophets who are our prophets too. We
believe in their books even if some distortion took place. We are
ordered to treat them cordially." [Interview
with al-Sharq al-Awsat]
"To
be punishable [as a capital offence] apostasy has to be more than
just intellectual apostasy. It would have to translate into not only
sedition but actually insurrection against society.” [quoted
in Globalization
and the Muslim World: Sub-Saharan Africa in a Comparative Context]
Kyai
Haji Abdurrahman Wahid
[former
President of Indonesia and leader of Nahdatul Ulama]
"Muslim
theologians must revise their understanding of Islamic law, and
recognize that punishment for apostasy is merely the legacy of
historical circumstances and political calculations stretching back
to the early days of Islam. Such punishments run counter to the clear
Koranic injunction "Let there be no compulsion in religion"
(2:256).
People of goodwill of every faith and nation must
unite to ensure the triumph of religious freedom and of the 'right'
understanding of Islam, to avert global catastrophe and spare
millions of others the fate of Sudan's great religious and political
leader, Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, who was executed on a false charge of
apostasy." [Extremism
Isn't Islamic Law]
Grand
Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri
...
a significant Shi'a religious authority, states that the above verses
do not prescribe an earthly penalty for apostasy and adds that it is
not improbable that the punishment was prescribed by Muhammad during
early Islam due to political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims
and not only because of changing the belief or expressing it.
Montazeri defines different types of apostasy. He does not hold that
a reversion of belief because of investigation and research is
punishable by death but prescribes capital punishment for a desertion
of Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim community.
[Wikipedia:
Apostasy in Islam;
direct BBC
Persian link]
Dr.
Muhammad Ma'ruf al-Dawalibi
[former
Professor of Law in University of Damascus, Syria; member, Supreme
International Council for Mosques, Makkah]
"... it
has never been proved that the Messenger of God exacted punishment on
apostates by killing them. This was also what the caliph Omar Ibn Abd
al-Aziz did. ... Shaikh Mahmud Shaltut ... says that many scholars
are of the opinions that hudud punishment cannot be proved by hadiths
reported by single individuals. He also says that disbelief in itself
is not justification for shedding blood. The real justification would
be aggression against Muslims, fighting them ..." [quoted in
Prof. Dr. Ala'Eddin Kharofa, Nationalism,
Secularism, Apostasy and Usury in
Islam, A.S. Noordeen, 1994, p. 13]
Sheikh
Gamal Al-Banna
[Egyptian
Islamist thinker, author, and journalist]
In an article
titled "No Punishment for Ridda [Muslims leaving Islam]; Freedom
of Thought is the Backbone of Islam," Al-Banna quoted all the
Koranic verses on the subject, and then said: "These verses are
clear with regard to ridda in Islam; they make no mention of any
torture or punishment for the murtadd in this world, like the
punishments for thieves or murderers. The [only] dreadful and
terrifying punishment is the rage of Allah. This is compatible with
the policy and spirit of the Koran, and the many other texts included
in it, that are based on belief in persuading the individual and his
intent without coercion or pressure, and that state that his freedom
is maximal... [Sheikh
Gamal Al-Banna: Social and Religious Moderation Vs. Political
Extremism]
Dr.
Abdul Aziz Sachedina
[Professor,
Religious Studies, University of Virginia]
"The
ethics of Islamic law allow for an interesting dilemma in regards to
the issue of free speech because there is no clear understanding
between civil and religious violations. There are certain acts, such
as apostasy, that don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the
legal system and don’t have a defined penal punishment as
outlined in the Qu’ran. 'There can be no particular punishment
for apostasy from a legal point of view,' Sachedina said. 'From a
religious point of view, only God has the power to punish you.'
[Cultural
Differences Explain Muslim Reaction to Danish Cartoons, Sachedina
Says]
Dr.
Rachid Ghannouchi
[leading
Islamic thinker and philosopher, and also a scholar on the European
Council for Fatwa and Research]
"The first challenge
was that of ar-ridda (the turning away or back, or apostasy, from
Islam), which Ghannouchi views more as a military insurrection than
an act of apostasy." [quoted in Dr. Azzam Tamimi's Democracy:
The Religious and the Political in Contemporary Islamic Debate]
Organization:
Council of American-Islamic Relations [CAIR]
“Islamic
scholars say the original rulings on apostasy were similar to those
for treasonous acts in legal systems worldwide and do not apply to an
individual's choice of religion. Islam advocates both freedom of
religion and freedom of conscience, a position supported by verses in
the Quran, Islam's revealed text … ‘Religious decisions
should be matters of personal choice, not a cause for state
intervention. Faith imposed by force is not true belief, but
coercion. Islam has no need to compel belief in its divine truth. As
the Quran states: ‘Truth stands out clear from error.
Therefore, whoever rejects evil and believes in God has grasped the
most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks.’ (2:256)
‘We
urge the government of Afghanistan to order the immediate release of
Mr. Abdul Rahman.’Before issuing its statement, CAIR consulted
with members of the Fiqh Council of North America, an association of
Islamic legal scholars that interprets Muslim religious law.”
[CAIR
Calls For Release Of Afghan Christian]
Dr.
AbdulHamid AbuSulayman
[Former
Rector, International Islamic Univresity, Malaysia; former Chairman,
International Institute of Islamic Thoughts]
"The
conceptual confusion occurs in the early period of Islam, because
this political conspiracy took the form of apostasy while the real
goal was to destroy the Muslim community. The confusion lies in
taking the act for what it appeared to be and not for what it was
meant to be. They mistook political conspiracy for an exercise of the
human right of freedom of belief and choice. The jurists seemed to
exercise little analysis concerning the whole question. The word
apostasy alone determined their position.
This
misunderstanding of the significance of the word apostasy in the
Qur'an and the punishment to it in the Hadith of the Prophet (PBUH)
destroyed in the classical jurisprudence the basis of the Islamic
concept of tolerance and human responsibility.
The early
Muslim position on apostasy ... was not directed against freedom of
conscience and belief but towards enforcing the policy of
Islamization of the warring Bedouin tribes and toward checking
conspiracy." [The Islamic
Theory of International Relations: New Directions for Islamic
Methodology and Thought, IIIT,
1981, p. 104]
S.
A. Rahman
[former Chief
Justice of Pakistan]
... the Qur'an is silent on the
question of death as the punishment for apostasy, despite this
subject occurring no less than twenty times in the Holy Book. Rahman
then traces the chain of transmission of the Hadith which proclaims
'kill whoever changes his religion'. ...
As this is a
solitary Hadith (ahad), Rahman finds some weakness in its
transmission (isnad). Rahman's conclusion is also supported by other
evidence, such as the fact that neither the Prophet himself nor any
of his Companions ever compelled anyone to embrace Islam, nor did
they sentence anyone to death solely for renunciation of the faith.
[cited in Kamali, mentioned above]
Dr.
Khaled Abou El Fadl
[Distinguished
scholar and Professor of Law and Islamic Studies, University of
California, Los Angeles, USA]
But while the Koran
mentions ridda,
it never calls for the execution of apostates. There is no record of
the prophet killing an apostate himself. And executions of apostates
have been rare in Islamic history. "The common argument is that
it clearly contradicts the Koran, which says there should not be
compulsion in religion," said Khaled Abou El Fadl, an Islamic
law expert and professor at the University of California, Los
Angeles. [In
Kabul, a Test for Shariah]
Dr.
Fathi Osman
[Commenting
on 2:256]
"This principle of freedom of faith is assured in
many other Qur'anic verses. As examples, we read 10:99, 11:28,
88:21-22. Forcing any person to act in any way nullifies the moral
and legal responsibility of that person in such an action, whether it
is good or evil; consequently, he/she cannot be respectively rewarded
or punished for that forced action. Accordingly, imposing Islam by
force on any human being will never bring out God's accpetance and
reward to the imposer or the one upon whom it was imposed.
...
Another report attributed the reason of revelation [of
2:256] to another incident, in which two sons of a Yathribi were
persuaded to be Christians by some Syrian merchants whom they joined.
Their parents wanted to get them back by force, but the Prophet
stressed their right to make their own free decision, and the verse
was revealed to support what the Prophet had said. Al-Zamakhshari,
the distinguished linguist and commentator of the Qur'an, commented
on the above verse: 'God has not conducted the matter of faith
through compelling and forcing, but through enabling] the person to
make his/her own decision] and willfully choosing.' " [Concepts
of the Qur'an: A Topical Reading, 2nd Ed., Los Angeles, CA: MVI
Publication, p. 808]
Dr.
Sheikh Mohammed Ali Al-Hanooti
[Mufti
of Greater Washington]
"The issue of apostasy falls
under the umbrella of man’s free will, freedom of expression
and belief. The Holy Qur’an states unequivocally that nobody
can be compelled to either become a Muslim or remain one. In Surah 4:
137, Allah says, “Behold, as for those who come to believe, and
then deny the truth, and again come to believe and again deny the
truth and thereafter, grow stubborn in their denial of the truth, God
will not forgive them, nor will He guide them in any way.” This
ayah very clearly shows that even after rejecting Islam twice, no
punishment is prescribed for the apostates.
The punishment
for apostasy mentioned in Islamic literature is derived from hadiths
whose authenticity is not certain (as these hadiths are ahad -from
one source, but not mutawatir- from a consensus of sources). Even
among those scholars who accept them as authentic, there is vast
difference of opinion on the interpretation and elaboration of the
hadiths. Such hadiths have been traditionally cited as justification
for executing apostates, but these were circumstantial rulings where
legal authorities of that time deemed the punishment justified, as
the act of apostasy in question, or in some cases, mass apostasy was
comparable to treason or to an organized crime outfit, where the
apostates would ally themselves with the opponents of the
state.
Such hadiths, which have, in the past, been cited
to justify punishment for apostasy, therefore, cannot stand against
the Qur’an, which provides no textual evidence for such action.
On the contrary, the Qur’an states in Surah 10: 99: “If
it had been the will of your Lord that all the people of the world
should be believers, all the people of the world would have believed!
Would you then compel them against their will to believe?”
In
conclusion, the Qur’an is the definitive clear authority for
protecting the rights of an individual in expressing himself in faith
and supercedes any of the distorted interpretations of the hadiths in
question. Executing a person because of conversion to another faith
contradicts the Qur’an, the ultimate source of Shari’ah."
[The
Ruling on Apostasy]
Dr.
Mahmoud Ayuob
[Professor
of Islamic Studies, Temple University]
Summary: After
determining what constitutes apostasy (riddah),
defined as 'an act of rejection of faith committed by a Muslim whose
Islam had been affirmed without any coercion', the author looks at
the understanding of riddah in
the Qur'an and the Tradition. From this study he concludes that there
is no real basis for the riddah law
in either of these sources. ["Religious Freedom and the Law of
Apostasy in Islam," Islamachristiana,
Vol. 20, 1994, pp. 75-91]
Islamic
Center of Long Island, New York
"The
Quran states categorically and unequivocally, there shall be no
coercion in matters of faith. (2:256). This cornerstone tenet of
Islamic faith is violated when an individual is put on trial for
converting away from Islam. This verse, very clearly teaches that
faith is a personal matter between the individual and God."
[Islamic
Center of Long Island’s Position Regarding Apostasy]
Dr.
Asghar Ali Engineer
[Director,
Institute of Islamic Studies, India]
"No wonder than
that Qur’an not only does not prescribe any punishment for
apostasy it is against any such punishment. … In view of such
clear exposition how can one maintain that one who becomes apostate
(murtad) should be punished with death? Such a punishment goes
completely against the principle of freedom of faith laid down in the
Qur’an. Since according to the Qur’an human beings are
responsible for their acts, they have been created free and only a
free agent can be held responsible for ones acts, good or bad. This
is quite clear from the story of Adam who was warned not to go near a
tree in paradise but was left free to decide and he decided to test
the fruit of the tree and as a result was expelled from it. This
story itself is sufficient to establish principle of freedom of
choice in the Qur’an. … Today human rights are of vital
importance and modern scholars are also engaged in the project of
showing these rights as quite compatible with Islam. And, if some
‘Ulama insist on death sentence for apostasy it is not only
crime against freedom of conscience and democratic rights but also
serious disservice against Islam." [Islam
and Punishment for Apostasy]
Dr.
Abdullah Saeed
[Director,
Centre for the Study of Contemporary Islam, University of Melbourne,
Australia]
"This book argues that the law of apostasy
and its punishment by death in Islamic law is untenable in the modern
period. Apostasy conflicts with a variety of foundation texts of
Islam and with the current ethos of human rights, in particular the
freedom to choose one's religion. Demonstrating the early development
of the law of apostasy as largely a religio-political tool, the
authors show the diversity of opinion among early Muslims on the
punishment, highlighting the substantial ambiguities about what
constitutes apostasy, the problematic nature of some of the key
textual evidence on which the punishment of apostasy is based, and
the neglect of a vast amount of clear Qur'anic texts in favour of
freedom of religion in the construction of the law of
apostasy.
Examining the significant challenges the
punishment of apostasy faces in the modern period inside and outside
Muslim communities - exploring in particular how apostasy and its
punishment is dealt with in a multi-religious Muslim majority
country, Malaysia, and the challenges and difficulties it faces there
- the authors discuss arguments by prominent Muslims today for an
absolute freedom of religion and for discarding the punishment of
apostasy." [Book Intro: Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam,
Ashgate Publications, 2004]
Dr.
Mohamed Shahrour
[Islamic
Thinker and Scholar, Syria]
“Let us consider how the
history of Islamic jurisprudence has dealt with the issue of freedom
and justice in relation to apostasy (al‑riddah). We have to
distinguish between two types of apostasy: that of politics and
that of creeds and beliefs. To rebel against the government and
attempt to oust it and rule in its stead is political apostasy. …
when we persuade or coerce people into believing or disbelieving, we
are actually disregarding and belittling God’s Word. … I
wish to emphasize that Islamic respect for freedom and Muslims’
awareness of its value cannot be established by force and coercion,
for the enforcement of any democratic ideal would be no different
from the ‘just tyrannical’ leadership.” [The
Concept of Freedom in Islam]
Dr.
Irfan Ahmad Khan
[A
respected scholar of the Qur'an, president of the World Council of
Muslims for Interfaith Relations and Chair of the Interreligious
Engagement Project. He is also a trustee of the Council for a
Parliament of the World's Religions. He is the author of a new
Qur'anic translation and commentary,Reflections
on the Quran: Understanding Surahs Al-Fatihah & Al-Baqarah.
Chicago, Illinois]
“[N]o one has any right to use
pressure of any kind to make a person change or stop from changing
his/her religion. An individual out of his/her own free will should
himself or herself do entering into a religion or coming out of a
religion.” [Freedom
to Change Ones’ Religion]
Dr.
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
[President/Director,
Minaret of Freedom Institute, Maryland, USA]
"Discussions
of Islamic law by non-Muslims (and, all too often, by Muslims as
well) suffer from confusion between the concepts of apostasy and
treason. The majority view is that the death penalty applies only to
treason during wartime, including providing aid and comfort to the
enemy, rather than mere conversion. According to the Constitution
[Article III, section 3], treason consists only 'in levying war
against [the United States], or in adhering to their enemies, giving
them aid and comfort.' That Muhammad shared this view can be seen in
the fact that he never executed apostates except when they made war
or propaganda against the Muslims." [On
the American Constitution from the Perspective of the Qur'an and the
Madinah Covenant by Dr. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad]
Dr.
Mohammed Fadel
[Faculty of
Law, University of Toronto, Canada]
"It is certainly
true that the vast majority of Islamic legal scholars in the middle
ages prescribed the death penalty for apostates, after an appropriate
period for the defendant to repent. This was not, however, a
universal position, as an early (and quite respected and important
authority, Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, argued that an apostate has the rest
of his natural life to repent. More importantly, the origin of the
crime of apostasy is political/military treason, not freedom of
conscience. Early works of Islamic law make this clear. Almost
inevitably, questions of apostasy are raised in the context of a
Muslim 'defecting' and joining the ranks of the enemy.
This
should not be too surprising given the religious nature of polities
in that day and age. In today's world, polities are not
religion-based, but based on citizenship, and accordingly, the
original logic behind the rules of apostasy have lost their force.
For that reason, many, but not all, contemporary Muslim thinkers
reject the notion that apostasy should be a capital offense. Of
course, that does not mean that, in times of crisis, demagogues
cannot abuse obsolete rules to wreak havoc." [Interview]
Shaikh
Dr. Taha Jabir al-Alwani
[former
Professor of Fiqh and Usul al Fiqh at Imam Muhammad b. Sa'ud
University in Riyadh. Founding member, the International Institute of
Islamic Thought (IIIT) in the USA in 1981; founder-member of the
Council of the Muslim World League in Makkah; , a member of the OIC
Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah since 1987; and President of the Fiqh
Council of North America since 1988.]
"Apostasy is
not a simple act. It has several parts. We cannot simply say that
someone left the religion. We must look at the reasons and actions
that come before leaving the religion. Suppose one becomes an
expatriate and fights against the U.S, (for example). This person
would be tried and convicted of treason and usually killed. But if
one leaves a religion without causing harm to others or engages in
treason, then there is no punishment. The Qur'an is blatant about the
fact that there is no compulsion in religion. Some people at the time
of the Prophet would convert in the morning and leave Islam at night.
The Prophet then announced that those joining in Islam in good faith
are welcome, but those who join only to then leave and discredit
Islam and then encourage others to fight Islam, that is considered
treason and treated as a crime in the same way as U.S. law."
[Interveiew]
Dr.
Mohammad Omar Farooq
[Associate
Professor of Economics and Finance, Upper Iowa University]
"Indeed
the Qur’an specifies no worldly punishment for apostasy. Hadith
refers to only those cases that involved political treason, not
apostasy. Also, these hadiths are not mutawatir and thus do not yield
certainty of knowledge. In addition, there is no ijma or consensus on
this. On the contrary, even some Classical jurists have rejected such
punishment.
Of greater importance is the fact that the
Qur’an is explicit and insistent about the freedom of faith for
all. If Islam upholds the freedom of choice in faith and if “Let
there be no compulsion in deen” means anything, then orthodox
position on apostasy is unacceptable and unislamic. There is no
ambiguity about it. In this world we make precious choices. Muslims
should propagate their faith to the best of their ability: Islam in
its essence represents the ultimate truth. Nonetheless we are also to
respect each other’s right to choose in this world. Muslims’
responsibility is sincere and capable propagation. And most assuredly
there is no provision for compulsion of faith in Islam – before
embracing the faith or after." [Apostasy,
Freedom and Da’wah: Full Disclosure in a Business-like Manner]
Dr.
Louay Safi
[Executive
Director of ISNA Leadership Development Center; Ex-President,
Association of Muslim Social Scientists]
“Traditionalist
scholars have long embraced classical positions on apostasy that
consider the rejection of Islam as a capital crime, punished by
death. This uncritical embrace is at the heart of the drama that was
played in the case of the Afghan convert to Christianity, and which
would likely be repeated until the debate about shari’ah reform
and its relevance to state and civil law is examined and elaborated
by authentic Muslim voices. … Indeed, one cannot find in the
Qur’an any support for the apostasy (ridda) penalty. … I
am inclined to the increasingly popular view among contemporary
scholars, that ridda does not involve a moral act of conversion, but
a military act of rebellion, whose calming justifies the use of force
and the return of fire. … A Christian or a Jew who converts to
Islam is no more a Christian or a Jew, but a Muslim and must be
respected as such. By the same taken a Muslim who convert to
Christianity is no more a Muslim, but a Christian and must be
respected as such.” [Apostasy
and Religious Freedom]
Dr.
Ingrid Mattson
[President,
Islamic Society of North America; Professor of Islamic studies at
Hartford Seminary in Connecticut]
"Given the
importance to her of individual choice, Mattson is well aware of the
major questions Westerners have about religious freedom in Muslim
countries - and whether Muslims have the right to convert to other
faiths. A few converts have had their children taken away or have
been persecuted as a result. A specialist in Islamic law, Mattson
says this is an area that is now being widely examined and
contested.
'Many scholars have convincingly argued that
apostasy is not a crime, while treason is, based on cases from the
early days of Islam, where people who left the community for other
religions were not punished, while those who left the political
community and betrayed it were.'
What happened
historically in some Muslim societies, she says, was that no
distinction was made between community affiliation and religious
affiliation. But today's world makes other demands, and she supports
the case being made for separation of the two." [Muslim
convert takes on leadership role]
Dr.
Zaki Badawi
[Principal
of the Muslim College; Chairman of the Imams and Mosques Council UK;,
Chairman of the Muslim Law (Shariah) Council UK;, Vice-Chairman of
the World Congress of Faiths;, and a Director and Trustee of UNICEF
UK]
... forcing people to believe things just makes them
hypocrites. The Koran has no compulsion, no punishment for going
away. ... [Inter-faith
meeting March 2005]
Organization:
Muslim Public Affairs Council
“...
[T]he Quran mandates that religious freedom be respected.
Furthermore, the Prophet Muhammad himself never sentenced an apostate
to death. 'While apostasy may be a sin in the eyes of God, it is not
considered to be criminal behavior,' Dr. Maher Hathout writes in his
recent book 'In Pursuit of Justice: The Jurisprudence of Human Rights
in Islam' (available through Amazon.com).
'We strongly
oppose the state's use of coercion in regulating Islamic belief in
such a manner, since faith is a matter of individual choice on which
only God can adjudicate.'" [MPAC
Joins Calls for Release of Afghan Christian]
Imam
Feisal Abdul Rauf
[Founder
and CEO of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA Society)
and Imam of Masjid Al-Farah, a mosque in New York City]
On
page 31 of What's
Right With Islam, Imam Rauf
maintains that: “What is right about any religion or societal
structure is therefore the extent to which individuals and societies
fully manifest the principles of the Abrahamic ethic”. Just
prior to this conclusion, he lists a number of failings of the Muslim
community in this respect after the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) passed away – namely, the disappearance of the rule of law
applied by an independent judiciary; the judgment that apostasy is
the equivalent of treason; continuation of the practice of slavery
despite the many Quranic verses that sought to eliminate that
institution; and, the on-going oppression of women. [What's
Right With Islamby Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -A Critical Commentary]
Dr.
Saif Ad-Deen 'Abdul-Fattah
[Professor
of political theory at Cairo University, known for his remarkable
contribution to the branch of jurisprudence that deals with
al-maqasid (the objectives of Shari`ah)]
"I think
that the rule that governs the issue here is Allah's saying [There is
no compulsion in religion] (Al-Baqarah 2:256). Religion cannot by any
means be compared to a trap; whoever is trapped in it can never get
out. Muslims are in no need of new hypocrites. From this point, I can
assure that those who apostatize are always to be asked to repent.
The incidents of apparent apostasy in our history are those of
collective apostasy. This kind of collective apostasy is considered
as cases of state security and national security, in which the
penalty for apostasy is applied to protect the whole state."
[Freedom
and the Cartoon Crisis: From the Incident to the Approach]
Dr.
M. Cherif Bassiouni
[President,
International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University]
“A
Muslim's conversion to Christianity is not a crime punishable by
death under Islamic law, contrary to the claims in the case of Abdul
Rahman in Afghanistan.While there is long-established doctrine that
apostasy is punishable by death, that has also long been questioned
by Islamic criminal justice scholars, including this writer.”
[Leaving
Islam Is Not a Capital Crime]
Sheikh
Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Shinqiti
[Director
of the Islamic Center of South Plains, Lubbock, Texas]
"What
I understand from different hadiths on the issue is that apostasy has
two different aspects: one, as an intellectual position, i.e. a
Muslim who is no longer convinced of the truth of Islam. The second
apostasy is in the meaning of political treason and military
rebellion against Muslims. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him), the person that changed his
religion joined the pagan army and fought against Muslims, and that
is, in my view, what meant by: 'one who reverts from Islam (apostate)
and leaves the Muslims.' Therefore, apostasy as purely an
intellectual position has no prescribed punishment in the Islamic
law, but if a Muslim committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and
joined the enemy fighting against Muslims, then he would deserved the
death punishment, especially at times of war. Even in secular laws in
some countries the penalty for treason is capital punishment.
This
does not mean that apostasy is not a great sin – indeed it is
the worst of all sins, and Allah says that He will punish those who
committed such a heinous act. But not every sin that is punishable on
the Day of Judgment has punishment in this world." [Islamonline
Live Fatwa Session]
Dr.
Asma Afsaruddin
[Associate
Professor of The Classics/Middle East Studies, University of Notre
Dame]
"Asma Afsaruddin, who teaches Islamic studies
at the University of Notre Dame, said that Islam 'threatens
punishment in the next world, but that is God's prerogative. The
Qur'an has no penalty prescribed for apostasy.' [Afghan
Christian averts death for apostasy as Italy grants asylum]
Organization: Muslim American Society [MAS]
"We
at MAS Freedom oppose the possible execution of Mr. Abdul Rahman on
both humanitarian and religious grounds. To purse such an action
would not only be a flagrant violation of the standards of human
rights which the Karzai regime claims to embrace, but it also runs
contrary to the Holy Quran, which forbids compulsion in religion."
[MAS
Freedom Foundation Responds to The Issue of Apostasy in Afghanistan]
Dr.
Chandra Muzaffar
[A
Malaysian political scientist; President of the International
Movement for a Just World (JUST)]
"The Noble Qur'an
itself views those who leave Islam --- the murtadd( apostate)-with
utmost displeasure. It says, " Those who believe, and then
disbelieve, and then( again) disbelieve, and then increase in
disbelief, Allah will never pardon them, nor will He guide them to
the (right) way ( Surah 4:137). But the Qur'an does not prescribe
capital punishment or any other form of punishment for the apostate.
Neither does the Sunnah. It was only when apostasy was coterminous
with rebellion against the nascent state that the Prophet( may peace
be upon him) had established in Medina, that the death penalty was
imposed. The Righteous Caliphs followed the Prophet's example. The
jurists who came after them adopted a different approach. They felt
no necessity to differentiate between mere peaceful change of faith
and violent rebellions. Consequently, their rulings evolved into
mainstream jurisprudence which is what the ulama of today have
inherited." [From
Fiqh to Qur'an: Resolving Apostasy]
Dr.
Hesham A. Hassaballa
[M.D.;
author and scholar; Beliefnet columnist]
“This
entire “what to do with apostates” debate has raised an
extremely important question in my mind. Despite the overwhelming
evidence in the Qur’an against the death penalty for those who
choose to leave the fold of Islam, despite the fact that the hadith,
when understood correctly, does not contradict the Qur’anic
position, it is amazing that some people still cling on to the
opinions of scholars on this issue. People continue to retort to me,
“All of the 4 imams have upheld death for apostates.”
[Are
The Scholars The Same As God Himself?]
Dr.
Maher Hathout
[MPAC's
Senior Advisor; Charter Member of the Pacific Council on
International Policy; member, Board of Directors of the Interfaith
Alliance; retired physician]
“The problem with the
argument for punishment for apostasy is that it cannot be applied in
any Islamic state without giving rise to the potential for abuse by
the state itself. Erroneously equating moral with political power in
the determination of law has led to the political repression that we
see in Islamic countries today.” [In Pursuit of Justice, p.
157, quoted inStatement
on Afghan Christian Convert]
Dr.
Riffat Hassan
[Chair,
Religious Studies, University of Louisville]
“In the
context of the human right to religious freedom, it is necessary to
mention that, according to traditional Islam, the punishment for
apostasy is death. In other words, a person who is born a Muslim or
who becomes a Muslim is to be put to death if he or she later chooses
to renounce Islam. There is nothing in the Qur’an which
suggests any punishment at all, let alone the punishment of death,
for a Muslim who renounces Islam. There is absolutely no reason to
assume that the Qur’anic dictum, “Let there be no
compulsion in religion” (Sura 2:256), which modern Muslims
apply with such magnanimity to non-Muslims does not or should not
apply to Muslims also. (I believe that the death penalty was not
meant to be a punishment for apostasy alone but for apostasy
accompanied by “acts of war” against the Muslims.”
[On
Human Rights and the Qur’anic Perspective]
Dr.
M.E. Asad Subhani
[Head
of the faculty of Islamic Studies at the College of Education in
Zanzibar, Tanzania]
... argues that the dominant Muslim
position on apostasy as deserving death is, in fact, not sanctioned
in the primary sources of Islam, the Qur'an and the Hadith, the
traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad ... [Book
review: Apostasy in Islam]
Imam
Ziad Hamdan
[Islamic
Society of Milwaukee]
Speaking at the main Friday prayer
service, Imam Ziad Hamdan said that conversion is a personal decision
and is not subject to the intervention of the state. In doing so, he
drew upon his own understanding of the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book,
and echoed the opinions of many North American Islamic scholars and
of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. ...
Hamdan said in an interview Friday that clerics have an obligation to
enter into a discussion with the man to point out his errors, but
that judgment and punishment are up to God. [Conversion
is personal, area Islamic leaders says]
Dr.
Zulfiqar Ali Shah
[Religious
Director, Milwaukee Islamic Society; member of Fiqh Council of North
America; former President, Islamic Circle of North America; CEO,
Universal Heritage Foundation]
That view [of Imam Ziad
Hamdan] was reinforced by Zulfiqar Ali Shah, the Milwaukee Islamic
society's religious director. He also is a prominent scholar and a
member of the Fiqh Council of North America, an association of
Islamic legal scholars that interprets Muslim religious law. Shah
said in an interview that the council and most other scholars in
North America hold that an individual has the freedom to choose a
faith, or to leave a faith, without earthly punishment.
"Islam
does not allow coercing anybody into the Islamic religion," Shah
said. "And even if it comes to apostasy, 'Irtidad,' the word
which means apostasy in the Qur'an appears 14 times, and all the 14
times the Qur'an does mention that there is punishment in the life
hereafter, but it says nothing about this worldly life whatsoever."
[Conversion
is personal, area Islamic leaders say]
Maulana
Inayatullah Asad Subhani
[Scholar;
author of many thought-provoking books on Islam; India]
And
there is no bigger misconception-strengthened with misinterpretation
of Islamic thoughts over the years-other than the belief that Islam
doesn't tolerate apostasy. Ulama have tried to strengthen it through
their emphasis and several leading Muslim reformists have failed to
tackle the issue. This misconception has also presented Islam as a
medieval and killer religion. Islam baiters have time and again tried
to carry the point by pointing out that Islam orders the killing of a
person if he reverts to other religion from Islam.
And
there was none who could answer this widely held belief as well as
put forth a convincing argument about the misinterpretation of
Qur'anic teachings by ulama.
Inayatullah Subhani says that
neither Islam forces any person to embrace Islam nor it forces him to
remain within its fold. He writes 'apostasy has been mentioned
several times in Qur'an. It also describes the bad treatment that
will be meted out for committing apostasy, but it never talks of
punishment for the crime in this world.' Maulana mentions three ayaat
(verses) from Qur'an on apostasy (Al-Baqara 217, Muhammad 25-27 and
Al-Maida 54 )and then says that none of these ayaat prescribes any
punishment for that though these ayaat pass strictures on the people
who commit it. He mentions several other ayaat on the same issue and
then concludes that none of these ayat prescribes either death
penalty or any other punishment for apostasy in this world. He then
adds that had there been some punishment in Islam for apostasy there
was no reason as to why the issue was mentioned repeatedly in Qur'an
but no punishment was prescribed.
He emphasizes that
people who were awarded death penalty for reverting to other
religions from Islam during either the time of the Prophet (SAW) or
during the reign of his caliphs were not given the punishment for the
crime of apostasy but for the fact that they were at war with Muslims
and Islamic government. [Book Review: Apostasy
doesn't carry death penalty in Islam]
Organization:
Islamic Center of Southern California
We
believe this trial, as well as apostasy laws in Afghanistan and other
so-called Muslim states mandating the killing of apostates, violates
two fundamental tenets of Islam.
a. Freedom of religion –
The Quran states categorically and unequivocally, “there shall
be no coercion in matters of faith.” (2:256). This cornerstone
tenet of Islamic faith is violated when an Islamic nation puts on
trial individuals for converting away from Islam. Based on this
verse, we see that faith is an intimate matter between a person and
God. There is no room for a nation, or a pseudo religious clergy, to
take on a role that God has reserved for Himself in judging the
relationship between a person and the Almighty.
b.
Sanctity of human life - one of the paramount goals of Islamic law
(Sharia) is the protection of human life. [Statement
on Afghan Christian Convert]
Dr.
Abidullah Ghazi
[Executive
Director, IQRA International Educational Foundation, Skokie, IL;
USA]
"The instances of mutual respect and cooperation
afforded those Muslims living in North America are too numerous,
while incidents of impudence and intolerance, seemingly inspired by
the Shari’ah code, have displayed the exact opposite in several
Muslim-majority lands. ...
There has also existed
historically a long tradition of acceptance diversity of culture and
faith in Islamic civilization, a fact that has to be remembered by
those wishing to jettison this value in favor of insularity and
narrow-mindedness.The question nowadays for the Muslim community in
the West is how we want this very same culture of freedom and choice
that we enjoy as minorities reflected in Muslim-majority societies.
In the globalized reality of today, Western Muslims have a special
duty to promote similar attitudes of respect for human rights,
tolerance and mutuality in Muslim-majority societies. ...
While
much has been made of the official radd penalty in the Western media
these days, the fact is that historically this penalty has been
rarely enforced, and usually when it was, it was due to some
unmitigated political upheaval caused by the said apostasy. ...
As
a believing and practicing Muslim who is deeply involved in
inter-religious dialogue and understanding, I call on all Muslim
judicial systems and legislatures worldwide (where the radd law
exists) to contemplate the decorum for this modern age in which we
live and bring our age-old and well-tested values in line with
universal values. It is high time that Muslims learn to respond to
all such challenges intellectually and academically, not through
passionate or repellent reaction." [An
Issue of Conversion]
Dr.
Ziauddin Sardar
[A
cultural critic, Muslim scholar, most prolific author, and editor of
Futures: The Journal of Planning, Policy, and Futures Studies]
"Most
Muslims consider the Shari'ah, commonly translated as ‘Islamic
law’, to be divine. Yet, there is nothing divine about the
Shari`ah. The only thing that can legitimately be described as divine
in Islam is the Qur’an. The Shari`ah is a human construction;
an attempt to understand the divine will in a particular context.
This is why the bulk of the Shari`ah actually consists of fiqh or
jurisprudence, which is nothing more than legal opinion of classical
jurists. The very term fiqh was not in vogue before the Abbasid
period when it was actually formulated and codified. But when fiqh
assumed its systematic legal form, it incorporated three vital
aspects of Muslim society of the Abbasid period. At that juncture,
Muslim history was in its expansionist phase, and fiqh incorporated
the logic of Muslim imperialism of that time. The fiqh rulings on
apostasy, for example, derive not from the Qur'an but from this
logic." [Rethinking
Islam]
Dr.
Abdullahi Ahmed an-Naim
[Professor
of Law at Emory University School; the director of the Religion and
Human Rights Program at Emory; formerly the Executive Director of the
African bureau of Human Rights Watch.]
"To Muslims,
Shari‘a is the 'Whole Duty of Mankind,' moral and pastoral
theology and ethics, high spiritual aspiration, and detailed
ritualistic and formal observance; it encompasses all aspects of
public and private law, hygiene, and even courtesy and good manners.
To attribute inadequacy to any part of Shari‘a is regarded as
heresy by the majority of Muslims, who believe that the whole of
Shari‘a is divine. This widespread view creates a formidable
psychological barrier, which is reinforced by the threat of criminal
prosecution for the capital offense of apostasy (ridda),
a real threat today in countries such as the Sudan." [Abdullahi
Ahmed An-Na’im, Toward
Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International
Law (Syracuse
Uni. Press 1996), p. 11].
" ...
although ridda (apostasy)
is condemned by the Qur'an in the strongest terms, the Qur'an does
not prescribe any punishment for apostasy in this life. Nevertheless,
the majority of Muslim jurists have classified apostasy as
a hadd punishable
by death as prescribed in the Sunna. Such classification violates the
fundamental right of freedom of religion, sanctioned by the Qur'an in
numerous verses. Relying on the higher authority of the Qur'an for
freedom of conscience, and arguing that the available Sunna imposing
the death penalty can be explained by the special circumstances of
the cases in question, some modern Muslim writers have mainteained
that apostasy is not a hadd.
This approach, however, does not address the other negative
consequences of apostasy under Shari'a, under the discretionary power
of ta'zir.
To remove all constitutional and human rights objections, the legal
concept of apostasy and all its civil and criminal consequences must
be abolished. Whatever Sunna authority may exist for penal and other
legal conseuences of apostasy should be taken as transitional and no
longer applicable in accordance with the evolutionary principle
explaned in Chapter 3." [p. 109]
Dr.
Jeffrey Lang
[Professor of
Mathematics, University of Kansas, USA; author of three
thought-provoking, must-reading books]
"The command,
'Let there be no compulsion in religion; truth stands out clear from
error' (2:256), would seem to argue against a penalty for apostasy
ouside of a manifest act of political treason. The majority trend of
those traditions of the Prophet related to incidents of apostasy also
point to this conclusion. In the first place, there are authenticated
traditions in which no action was taken against apostates. ...
Secondly, there are the group of traditions that associate apostasy
with high treason. ... While the death penalty for apostasy still has
important implications for Muslims in countries like Iran, Saudi
Arabia, and perhaps Pakistan, it is of little immediate consequence
to Muslims now living in western countries, where the idea of killing
someone for having second thoughts about one's faith is highly
repugnant. The evidence resorted to in classical texts to justify
execution for a mere change of faith might better suggest limiting
such a punishment only to cases of aiding and abetting an enemy of
the state." [Struggling to Surrender, Amana Publications, 1994,
pp. 210-211]
Dr.
Abdul Hakim Winter
[Professor
of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge, U.K]
"The
issue of the punishment for apostasy is a fascinating example of
debates unfolding in Islamic law. Islam has four orthodox schools of
law, and traditionally the majority view in all four of them held
that apostasy carries the death penalty. In recent years, however,
many Muslim scholars have pointed out that even among the medieval
writers there are leading figures who, on the basis of the Muslim
scriptures, have contested this. An example, from the Hanafi school,
would be al-Sarakhsi; and from the Malikis, al-Baji. The reason for
the difference of opinion (hardly an uncommon phenomenon in Islamic
law!), is that the Qur'an nowhere lays down a penalty for apostasy,
and the Hadith texts have been interpreted in very contrasting
ways.
For this reason, Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut, the highest
religious authority in Egypt during the 1960s, issues an opinion to
the effect that apostasy was not a criminal offence in Islamic law.
This view has been followed widely in the Muslim world." [Online
Dialogue: The Future of Muslims in the West]
Dr.
Amir Hussain
[Department
of Theological Studies; Loyola Marymount University; California,
USA]
Unfortunately, many Muslims and non-Muslims alike are
unaware of the historical contexts that shaped the development of
Islamic law. The harsh measures that some Muslims impose on those who
leave the faith must be understood in light of Islam's beginnings as
a persecuted tradition. Muslims were threatened by the polytheists in
Mecca, and a series of battles occurred between Muhammad's community
in Medina and the polytheists of Mecca. In that context the death
penalty as a punishment for apostasy was not so much a matter of
religious affiliation as a matter of political identity. By reverting
back to polytheism after having converted to Islam, one would
actively be siding with the polytheists of Mecca and would therefore
undermine the Muslim community. In effect, apostasy was comparable to
treason, an offence which still carries the death penalty in several
jurisdictions in the United States, though no longer in Canada
.In
the modern period, extremist Muslims seem almost to take delight in
applying those early precedents to apostates today. The classical
jurists of Islamic law, however, were hesitant to rule on cases of
apostasy, however, precisely because of the capital nature of the
offence. They preferred to let God decide the matter on the day of
judgment. Indeed, the Qur'an is clear that ultimate judgment belongs
to God alone: "Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the
earth belongs to God; God forgives whom God pleases and chastises
whom God pleases; and God is Forgiving, Merciful" (3:129). This
recourse to God's judgment is applied differently throughout the
Muslim world; today some pacifist Muslims take it so far as to
renounce not only the death penalty but all violence in the defense
of the faith. When Muslims take upon themselves God's role as judge
of a person's faith, they flout the Qur'anic injunction given to the
Prophet Muhammad himself, that he was to warn people but not force
them to obey: "So therefore remind, for you [Muhammad] are one
to remind, but you are not a warden over them. But whoever turns back
and disbelieves, God will punish him with a mighty punishment. For to
Us [God] is their return, and it will be for Us to call them to
account" (88:21 - 26). It is therefore God who will inflict
punishment when human beings return to God at the end of this
life.
Of course, Muslims believe that human beings still
need law, or else there would be chaos. Even those of us who value
human freedom agree that certain conventions such as traffic signals
should be obeyed. The difficult issue is the intersection of human
justice in this world with God's justice in the world to come.
["Apostasy: turning away from Islam," in Oil
and Water: Two Faiths, One God (Kelowna:
Copper House, 2006), pp. 178-180]
Organization:
Muslim Women's League [MWL]
The
Muslim Women's League ... [calls] for the release of the Afghan
Christian convert recently on trial for apostasy. We follow the
Qur'anic mandate that "there is no compulsion in religion"
and hope that this case will be resolved justly, as required by
Islam. [Calling
for Release of the Afghan Christian]
Imam
Yahya Hendi
[Muslim
chaplain at Georgetown University; Imam of the Islamic Society of
Frederick; a member and the spokesperson of the Islamic Jurisprudence
Council of North America; adjunct faculty with Evergreen Society of
John Hopkins University’s School of Professional Development,
MD.]
"I call on the government of Afghanistan to
release Abdul Rahman, a man facing the death penalty for converting
from Islam to Christianity. According to my understanding of Islamic
law (Shari’ah), belief is a personal matter not subject to the
intervention of the state. Shari’ah Law safeguards the right of
every human being to choose his/her own faith and tradition. Shari’ah
law should not and must not be used by politicians to justify
inhumane and cruel treatment of converts and religious minorities
living in so-called Muslim Lands.
What the Islamic
Shari’ah terms Hadd ul-Riddah must be distinguished from the
right to convert out of Islam. Hadd ul-Riddah refers to the original
rulings of early Islamic scholars on apostasy, which were similar to
rulings concerning treason found in legal systems worldwide and do
not apply to an individual's choice of religion. ...
Let
it be known by all humanity, both Muslims and non-Muslims that
religious belief should be a matter of personal choice, not a cause
for government intervention. Faith imposed by force is not true
belief, but rather coercion." [Imam
Yahya Hendi calls for the release of Afghan Christian]
Dr.
Azizah al-Hibri
["Azizah
Y. al-Hibri is a professor at the T. C. Williams School of Law,
University of Richmond; founder and president of KARAMAH: Muslim
Women Lawyers for Human Rights.]
"The whole
punishment for Muslims who leave their people is not about change of
religion at all, whether Christianity or even lack of belief in God,
because God guaranteed for Muslims freedom of faith and freedom of
conscience. The whole idea was, if they were in a state of war and
this person left and joined the enemy who is fighting them, then he
becomes the enemy, and then you fight him like you fight the enemy.
That's what needs to be understood." [CNN
Interview]
Dr.
Radwan Masmoudi
[Founder,
member of the Board, and President of the Center of the Study of
Islam & Democracy (CSID)]
"Freedom of religion is
the only way to build a strong, moral society," says Radwan
Masmoudi, "where people can deal with each other with dignity,
respect, trust, and fairness." Progressive thinkers such as
Masmoudi advocate "liberal Islam," which considers freedom
of conscience a sacred right as well as a central democratic
doctrine. They argue that Muslims must recover the Koranic teaching
that human beings are created free, and that violations of basic
liberties--including freedom of worship--contradict human nature and
the will of God. [The
Unmentionable Freedom]
Ruqaiyyah
Waris Maqsood
[British
Muslim author and educator; authors of many books on Islam]
"As
regards the common misconception about issuing the death penalty for
leaving the faith (apostasy), or vilifying Allah (blasphemy), or
speaking abusively about Allah or his Messenger (pbuh), this was
never the case. The Prophet (pbuh) himself was frequently abused and
hurt and jeered at, but exhorted his followers going through equal or
greater suffering than himself to stand firm and accept the
unpleasantness with patience, hating the evil, but never hating the
people who had been overtaken by evil. The death penalty could be
issued legally in cases of treason or murder, the treason being the
cases of those who had once accepted the rule of Islam in an Islamic
country, but had then not merely turned against it (which anyone
might do - and be pitied for this tragedy rather than attacked; their
actual judgment rested with Allah in the life to Come), but also
actively led physical attacks upon it and coerced others into doing
so." [On
the Hijacking of Islam]
Dr.
A. Rashied Omar
[Research
Scholar of Islamic Studies and Peacebuilding, Joan B. Kroc Institute
for International Peace Studies, University of Notre
Dame]
“Contemporary Muslim jurists are uncritically
transporting medieval juristic positions that were negotiated in
radically different historical circumstances to present day
realities. … number of modern Muslim scholars have argued for
more lenient and humane positions on apostasy, marshalling strong
support for their views. … Notwithstanding these and other
tolerant Islamic positions on religious conversion, Muslims engaged
in interreligious dialogue need to be more honest and forthcoming
about the enormous challenge they face in reforming the hegemonic
traditional Muslim position on apostasy.” [The
Right to Religious Conversion: Between Apostasy and Proselytization]
Imam
Farooq Abo-Elzahab
[Imam,
Islamic Center of Greater Toledo]
“A person cannot
be forced into being a Muslim, and neither should someone be punished
for peacefully abandoning the faith,” according to Imam Farooq
Abo-Elzahab.
"The penalty is up to God in the
hereafter, but there is no penalty on this Earth for apostasy,"
Imam Farooq said yesterday. He called the Afghan government's charges
against Abdul Rahman "a kind of nonsense, a misinterpretation of
Islam." [No
earthly penalty for converts, local imam says]
Imam
Sadullah Khan
[Executive
Director of Religious Affairs at the Islamic Center of Irvine,
California.]
“There is not a single instance that
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did treat apostasy as a prescribed offence
under hudud (capital punishment) only for leaving Islam. The Prophet
(pbuh) never put anyone to death for apostasy alone rather he let
such person go unharmed.” [Freedom,
Tolerance and the Shari’ah]
Dr.
Najah Kadhim
[Executive
Director of the International Forum for Islamic Dialogue (IFID) and a
senior university lecturer, London, United Kingdom]
“…
why should we feel so insecure about the destiny of Islam and lose
our self-confidence when dealing with other people to the extent of
imposing Islamic ideas and beliefs by force? … We have not
heeded the Qur’anic plea when it has appealed to our senses,
asking us to reflect, to seek to understand the causes of phenomena,
and therefore to be able to construct a great civilization. What we
now have is social retardation, far removed from the civilization
envisaged by the Qur’an. In our efforts to find solutions
to the problems that continue to arise day after day, we retreat into
the past to seek readymade answers. The execution of the apostate
reflects our distrust in the intellect and our blind adherence to the
use of violence, which are the result of our yielding to inferior
animal instincts and our imitating the shameful attitudes of other
nations.” [Has
the Time Come for a Serious Reflective Reassessment of the Fiqh of
the Killing of an Apostate (and many other issues)?]
Javed
Ahmad Ghamidi
Pakistani
Islamic scholar, exegete, and educationist; director of Al-Mawrid
Institute of Islamic Sciences; member of Council of Islamic Ideology
since 2006]
"Instead of interpreting the Hadith in
the light of the relationship between the Qur’an and Hadith,
they [the jurists]have interpreted it in the absolute sense, totally
against the context of the Qur’an. Consequently, in their
opinion the verdict pronounced in the Hadith has a general and an
unconditional application. They have thereby incorporated in the
Islamic Penal Code a punishment which has no basis in the Shari‘ah."
[Islamic
Punishments: Some Misconceptions]
Dr.
Reza Aslan
[Research
Associate at the University of Southern California's Center on Public
Diplomacy; author of "No God But God]
"It's
important, first of all, to understand that the Koran says nothing
about apostasy at all. There is no punishment in apostasy. This idea
of death as a punishment for apostasy actually arose at a time in
which Islam and the state were one. So, apostasy and treason were
considered the same thing. And, therefore, the punishment of death
was for all of it.
Not all Islamic law -- schools of
Islamic law actually agree upon this, just the very conservative
ones. And there are few more conservative schools of law than in
Afghanistan." [Anderson
Cooper 360 Degrees: Death to Christian Converts?]
Dr.
Ahmad Shafaat
[Distinguished
Mathematician and currently, professor, Department of Decision
Sciences and MIS, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec. A noted
scholar in his own profession, Shafaat also specialized in
Comparative Religon and has authored many books and pamphlets about
Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.]
“It is a
significant fact that the Book of God does not prescribe any
punishment for apostasy. Many Muslims would immediately say, The
Qur`an does not tell us everything. We need to go to the Hadith to
find guidance on matters not touched by the Qur`an. But … The
punishment for apostasy is not a detail that we can expect God to
leave for ahadith, especially if that punishment is death, since
taking the life of a person, if done without a just cause, is
regarded by the Qur`an as tantamount to killing all human beings
(5:32).” [The
Punishment of Apostasy in Islam]
Shaikh
Dr. Ahmad Kutty
[Scholar,
Islamic Institute of Toronto]
“Even though the
penalty for treason was the death penalty (as was the case in the Law
of Moses as well), there was no targeting of people who simply chose
to leave Islam without any implication of treason. To simply kill
anyone who chooses to follow a religion other than Islam is against
the fundamental teachings of the Qur’an. Freedom of conscience
is a fundamental principle of the Qur’an that is clearly stated
in many Qur'anic verses.” [On
Apostasy]
Organization:
Islamic Center of San Deigo
The
position of ICSD on the apostasy case in Afghanistan is the position
taken by CAIR and
MAS Freedom Foundation, namely that ICSD:
“oppose(s)
the possible execution of Mr. Abdul Rahman on both humanitarian and
religious grounds. To pursue such an action would not only be a
flagrant violation of the standards of human rights which the Karzai
regime claims to embrace, but it also runs contrary to the Holy
Quran, which forbids compulsion in religion.” [ICSD
Response to Apostasy Case In Afghanistan]
Dr.
Shahid Athar
[Islamic
activist and author; Indianapolis, IN, USA]
"There is
no death penalty in the Qur’an for apostasy. The Qur’an
says “Let there be no compulsion in religion, truth stands out
from falsehood. Whosoever rejects falsehood and believes in one God
has grasped the most trustworthy hand that never breaks, and God
hears and knows all things.” (2:26). In order to be a true
Muslim, the faith has to accepted in the heart of the person. A court
cannot force him to become Muslim." [Reflections
on God’s Grace, Salvation, Heaven & Hell]
Zainah
Anwar
[Executive
Director, Sisters in Islam, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia]
...
even though apostasy is a great sin it is not a capital offence in
Islam. Therefore a personal change of faith merits no punishment. Yet
in its attempt to introduce the hudud law in the 21st century, the
Islamic party in power in Terengganu chose the most extremist
juristic opinion to codify into law. It is a well-known fact that the
Qur'an is explicit in its recognition of freedom of religion and
there exists as well within the Islamic juristic heritage a position
that supports freedom of religion. [Islamisation
and its Impact on Democractic Governance and Women's Rights in Islam]
Dr.
Muqtedar Khan
[Assistant
Professor in the Department of Political Science and International
Relations at the University of Delaware]
"...
religious minorities in some Islamic states, such as Afghanistan
under the Taliban, suffer institutionalized discrimination because of
these states’ legalist orientation and their obsession with the
Islamic jurisprudence. Some of the legalist positions in Islamic
states are so strict that non-Muslim minorities find it a challenge
to live normal lives. Blasphemy laws and apostasy laws are well known
for the problems they cause minorities." [Islamic
State and Religious Minorities]
Dr.
Ibrahim B. Syed
[President
of the Islamic Research Foundation International, Louisville,
Kentucky]
“And there is no bigger
misconception-strengthened with misunderstanding of Islamic beliefs
over the years-other than the belief that Islam doesn't tolerate
apostasy. The Christian missionaries and the Western world are
cashing in on it. Ulama have tried to strengthen their point of view
and several leading Muslim reformists have failed to tackle the
issue. This misconception has also presented Islam as a medieval and
killer religion. Islam bashers have time and again tried to carry the
point by pointing out that Islam orders the killing of a person if he
or she reverts to another religion from Islam.No body is forthcoming
to challenge this widely held belief as well as put forth a
convincing argument about the misinterpretation of Qur'anic teachings
by Ulama.The Qur’an is completely silent on any worldly
punishment for apostasy and the sole Tradition that forms the basis
of rulings is open to many interpretations.” [Is
Killing An Apostate in the Islamic Law?]
Dr.
Hasan Zillur Rahim
[Former
editor of IQRA, South Bay Islamic Association; Physicist]
"Many
Muslims have already pointed out the absurdity, illegality and
immorality of apostasy-killing as the hapless Rahman's impending fate
filtered out of Afghanistan. The most powerful indictment comes, of
course, from the Quran: Let there be no compulsion in religion
(2:256). ...
Hopefully, killing for apostasy and stoning
to death (only women need apply) for adultery will soon be a thing of
the past as absolutist clerics realize that their hold over Muslim
minds and hearts is rapidly dissipating. ...
Even in
conservative societies, Muslims are beginning to realize that faith
is a matter of personal responsibility and not a consequence of
authoritarian decree. The days of religious leaders thundering: 'I am
right, you are dead' will soon, let us pray, be over once and for
all." [Lessons
from the case of the Afghan apostate]
Dr.
Shehzad Saleem
[Director,
Al-Mawrid, Institute of Islamic Sciences; Editor, Renaissance, a
monthly Islamic journal; Pakistan]
"It is shown on
the basis of the above mentioned feature that the following
directives of Islam are specific to the age of the last Rasul and his
companions and cannot be related to later Muslims: 1. Apostasy ..."
[Understanding
the Qur’an: A Fundamental Premise]
Shah
Abdul Hannan
[Chairman,
Islamic Economic Research Bureau; former Chairman, Islami Bank
Bangladesh Ltd., former deputy governor, Bangladesh Bank;
Author/Scholar; Bangladesh]
"On this issue of
punisment of apostasy I hold the same view as that of Dr. Jamal
Badawi, Dr. Hashim Kamali, Dr. AbdulHamid AbuSulayman and such
scholars ... who hold that apostasy has no punishment unless in
conjunction with rebellion or violence. This is my view."
[comment sent directly by email]
Adil
Salahi
[Journalist and
author of many books, including Muhammad: Man and Prophet]
"Many
are the Qur’anic verses that make clear that all people are
free to choose the faith they want. There can be no compulsion with
regard to faith. Indeed, over the fourteen centuries since Islam
began, compulsion was never a policy of any Islamic government
anywhere in the world. On the contrary, followers of other faiths,
including those who worship idols, lived freely among Muslim
communities. Today, you find Christian and Jewish communities, as
well as followers of other faiths, in the overwhelming majority of
Muslim countries. This testifies to the fact that Islam operates a
policy of freedom of faith and worship. The Hadith you have mentioned
is often quoted in support of the death penalty for apostasy. Many
scholars mention that this penalty is mandatory, which means that it
is prescribed and cannot be changed. However, a fair number of
profoundly perceptive scholars are of the view that this punishment
is discretionary, which means that it can be reduced or even waived.
This is the view that seems to be better supported by Qur’anic
and Hadith texts.
... It is 'deserting the community',
which means that the person concerned did not merely choose to follow
a religion other than Islam, but also he deserted his community and
stood in opposition to it. Scholars make clear that the Arabic
statement implies rebellion. They cite cases of people who changed
their faith after adopting Islam during the time of the Prophet
(peace be upon him) and his two immediate successors, Abu Bakr and
Umar, and none of them was executed. It is to that early period of
Islam that we look for practical guidance in understanding Islamic
rules. Had the death penalty for apostasy been mandatory, none of
them would have refrained from enforcing it." [What
Is the Punishment for Apostasy?]
Dr.
Bashir Ahmad
[Wildwood,
Missouri; USA]
"Islam emphatically affirms full
freedom of conscience and belief. Simple apostasy, which is not
aggravated by rebellion, treason or grave disorderliness, is not
punishable in any manner." [No
Punishment for Apostasy in Islam]
Organization:
Islamic Networks Groups
[Based
in the San Francisco Bay Area, ING, an entreprenurial, educational
outreach organization with affiliates and partners in 20 states,
Canada and the United Kingdom. ING promotes interfaith dialogue and
education]
"No where in the Qur’an does it
mention punishment for apostasy, although the subject of disbelief is
mentioned repeatedly, and the last verse mentioned above specifically
describes a person who disbelieves repeatedly without any mention of
punishment. ... according to numerous Islamic scholars, the death
penalty was meant, not for simple acts of apostasy, but for political
betrayal of the community, or treason, which is punishable in
numerous societies. ... ING calls on all Muslims to re-examine
universal Islamic principals that uphold the rights of all people to
freedom of religion." [Apostasy
in Islam]
Mustafa
Akyol
[a Turkish
Muslim writer]
"In
the early Muslim state, apostasy became regarded as a crime because
it was seen as a rebellion against the state. In other words, the
real consideration was political and, by time, this turned into a
religious rule as well. This is, of course, a deviation we Muslims
should rid ourselves today." [Symposium:
Convert or Die]
Dr.
Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin
[Youngest
national mufti, Malaysia]
Islamic leaders must squarely
address the questions of apostates and other challenges, and not
further damage the Muslim community by their own failure to live up
to religious values. ...
Asked to comment on tensions
raised by the issue of apostasy, Asri said religious leaders were
culpable because they divert focus from the reasons that lead Muslims
to apostasise. Instead, they issued threats of punitive measures
against apostates and non-Muslim supporters. [Malaysia:
Nation's youngest mufti speaks out on apostasy]
Ibrahim
Hooper
[National
Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations]
"Islam advocates both freedom of religion
and freedom of conscience. That position is supported by the Quran,
Islam's revealed text, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad and the
opinions of Islamic scholars both past and present. ... Islamic
scholars say the original rulings on apostasy were similar to those
for treasonous acts in legal systems worldwide and do not apply to an
individual's choice of religion. ... Freedom from coercion also
implies freedom to practice another faith. ... Religious decisions
should be matters of personal choice, not a cause for state
intervention. Faith imposed by force is not true belief. [Islam
and religious freedom]
Ahmad
Faiz bin Abdul Rahman
[Researcher
with the Institute of Islamic Understanding, Malaysia (IKIM) and a
Pro-temp Committee Member of the International Movement for a Just
World (JUST).]
One
of the manifestations of personal liberty is the freedom of the
individual to profess the religion of his or her choice without
compulsion. ... Freedom of religion under Islam would therefore imply
that non-Muslims are not compelled to convert to Islam, nor are they
hindered from practicing their own religious rites. However, many
tend to forget or take for grant that this also applies to Muslims,
in that they are not to be compelled or be put under undue influence
so as to become apostates. In other words, both Muslims and
non-Muslims are entitled to propagate the religion of their
following, as well as to defend it against attacks or seditious
provocation, regardless of whether such an action is launched by
their co-religionists or by others." [Malaysian
Laws on Apostasy Inadequate]
Mirza
A. Beg
[Geologist and
columnist; US]
“The Quran has many references to
apostasy. It does not call for a temporal punishment; it specifically
reserves the judgment for God. On the contrary there are many verses
that clearly prohibit compulsion in religion … It is important
and valid to oppose all the encroachments by others on the Muslim
lands and Islam, but it is suicidal to use it as an excuse to cover
the festering wound intolerance. The more grievous fault is lies
within.” [Apostasy
Laws – An Injury To Islam By Muslims]
Iman
al-Qahtani
[Saudi
journalist. She is also an author and activist in Saudi
Arabia]
"There is no basis for executing an apostate
in Islam. It is nothing more than an invention by narrow-minded men
who accuse everyone in disagreement with them of apostasy." [I
don't believe it]
Dr. Sohirin Solihin
[Pofessor
of Qur'ranic studies, International Islamic University,
Malaysia]
... The Koran forbids Muslims to abandon their
faith, but it doesn't specify the penalties ... [Losing
Faith in Malaysia]
Imam
Kamara AbdilHaqq Muhammad
[Isaamic
Teacher and Associate Imam at ADAMS Center of Northern Va., USA]
"Of
the many things we try to remember, we must remember this clear fact:
Allah is not in need of anyone or anything in His creation.'
Therefore it is neither a loss to Him nor a strain to Him if any of
the Children of 'Aadam turn away from His established agenda of
Al-Islaam. 'Laa 'ikraha fid Diin' means exactly what it says: 'No
compulsion in the Diin (religion). Allah has not made it compulsory
that we must worship and pray to Him, rather He has allowed us to
make that choice with our free wills that He so kindly gave us. I
have found that the less educated people are in the Qur'aan and
social life, the harder they are on others. "The Prophet never
punished those around him who sometimes said shahaadah in the morning
and change to something else in the evening.
When any
among the Children of 'Aadam choose in their own heart to submit
their will to Allah it is their gain and blessing, likewise when any
among the Children of 'Aadam elect to reject to submit their will to
Allah it is their own loss and their loss only. Be patient in all
matters and we get the best outcome." [comments sent directly by
email, while endorsing the Statement presented in this Blog]
Asim
Siddiqui
[Chairman of the
City Circle, a network body of mainly young Muslim professionals;
UK]
"To argue for capital punishment for apostasy
goes against the very principles of Islam." [Freedom
of conscience in Islam]
Sherazad
Hamit
[Student, Macalester
College]
“ … the sentencing to death of
apostates goes against Qur’anic decrees on apostasy, and is
therefore un-Islamic, given the context of the apostate in question.
…” [Apostasy
and the Notion of Religious Freedom in Islam]
Organization:
Sisters In Islam
[Sisters
in Islam (SIS) is an independent non-governmental organisation,
formed in 1988, which believes in an Islam that upholds the
principles of equality, justice, freedom and dignity]
“Based
on these three reasons and the Qur'anic principle of freedom of
religion, prominent ulama from the seventh to the twentieth centuries
have come out with the position that there can be no death penalty
for apostasy. According to Professor Hashim Kamali in his
award-winning book, Freedom of Expression in Islam, two leading
jurists of the generation succeeding the Companions, Ibrahim
al-Naka'I and Sufyan al-Thawri, both held that the apostate should be
re-invited to Islam, but should never be condemned to death. The
renowned Hanafi jurist, Shams al-Din al-Sarakhsi wrote that even
though renunciation of faith is the greatest of offences, it is a
matter between man and his Creator, and its punishment is postponed
to the Day of Judgement. The Maliki jurist Abul Walid al-Baji and the
renowned Hanbali jurist Ibn Taymiyyah have both held that apostasy is
a sin which carries no hadd punishment. …Those in the vanguard
of the Islamic movement that wants to turn this country into an
Islamic state must ask themselves, why would Malaysians support the
concept of an Islamic state which assert different rights for Muslim
men, Muslim women and non-Muslims and minorities, rather than equal
rights for all? Why would those whose equal status and rights are
recognised by a democratic system support the creation of such an
Islamic state? If an Islamic state means a dictatorial theocratic
political system that condemns those who question or challenge its
authority as apostates or deviants, and then impose the death penalty
on them, then why would those whose fundamental liberties are
protected by a democratic state support such an intolerant concept of
an Islamic state?” [Islam,
Apostasy and PAS]
Dr.
Mohamed Azam Mohamed Adil
[Lecturer
at the Centre for Islamic Thought and Understanding at Mara
University of Technology; Bachelor of Shari’a, University of
Malaya; PhD, University of London’s School of Oriental and
African Studies].
"The notion of the right to freedom
of religion is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed in Islam. ...
However, most of the classical Muslim jurists’ writings,
apparently, did not articulate the subject. ... The subject of the
rights of the individual especially in relation to the right to
freedom of religion seems lacking in most Islamic fiqh books. Indeed,
the majority of classical Muslim jurists think that the right to
freedom of religion is not applicable to Muslims. Muslims who leave
the Islamic faith or who have apostatised should be condemned and put
to death. In reality, punishment of apostasy has not been prescribed
by the Qur’ān and had never been practised by the Prophet
(S.A.W.). The Muslim jurists have been confused with such punishment,
considering that all apostates must be put to death after they
refused to repent. The fact was that the Prophet (S.A.W.) had
proclaimed a death penalty upon apostates because their acts were
contemptuous and hostile towards Islam. Muslims who merely renounced
the Islamic religion were only required to undergo a process of tauba
(repentance)." [Abstract: Punishment
for Apostasy: Conflict between criminal sentence and the right to
freedom of religion, p.
32]
Mike
Mohamed Ghouse
[Founder,
World Muslim Congress; Founder, Foundation for Pluralism; Dallas,
Texas]
"We, the Muslims request you to honor the life
given by Allah toAbdul Rahmanand grant him his freedom to practice
his faith.Lakum Dinukum Waliya
deen.To him his faith is dear, as
our faith is to us." [American
Muslims' Plea to Afghan Judges In the case of Apostate Abdul Rahman]
Haris
Aziz
[PhD candidate and
professional journalist at Warwick University]
“The
Quran talks about apostasy at least twenty times but does not mention
any worldly punishment. The only warning given is about the
consequence in the life here after. Moreover there is a good
possibility that the referred ahadith have a specific context of
hirabah [high treason], breaking away from the authority, breaking a
treaty, defying the direct commands of a living prophet in violent
times and incitement to wage war against Muslims when the very
survival of a small Muslim community was in danger. Many celebrated
jurists have alluded to this kind of takhsis [specification] to
conclude that an apostate should be re-invited to Islam but not
condemned to death. It is critical that the Ulema [scholars] address
this issue. Moreover if some Muslim country does not allow
non-Muslims to observe their religion freely, it is totally against
Islamic principles of justice and fair play and should be tackled.”
[Affirmation
of Freedom of Expression and Belief in the Quran]
Shah
Abdul Halim
[Chairman of
Islamic Information Bureau, Bangladesh]
“In fact
there is not a single instance that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did treat
apostasy as a prescribed offence under hudud (capital punishment)
only for leaving Islam. The Prophet (pbuh) never put anyone to death
for apostasy alone rather he let such person go unharmed. No one was
sentenced to death solely for renunciation of faith unless
accompanied by hostility and treason or was linked to an act of
political betrayal of the community. As a matter of fact the Quran is
completely silent on the question of death as a punishment for
apostasy. Apostasy does not qualify for temporal punishment.”
[Islam
& Pluralism: A Contemporary Approach]
Imam
Ahmad Sa'd
[Ex-Imam of
Calgary Muslim Community, Alberta, Canada and now Imam in Ar-Rahma
Mosque, Egypt.]
"A close study of the life of the
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which serves as an example
for all Muslims to learn how to practice Islam and carry out its
injunctions, will show us that he never killed people who changed
their religion or left Islam, for the reason of their leaving
Islam.
In incidents when the Prophet commended the killing
of some people, it was because they had committed an offense to the
Muslim community, threatening its safety, or because they had killed
someone and were killed themselves in retaliation. Therefore, killing
them had nothing to do with their apostasy.
In fact, many
Islamic scholars support the view that there is no prescribed
punishment (hadd) for apostasy. In doing this, they use both reason
and strong evidence from Qur'an and Sunnah." [Should
an Apostate Be Killed?]
Kashif
Ahmed Shehzada
[Researcher
on the Qur'an and comparative religion; Karachi, Pakistan]
"The
question of forcing someone to believe does not arise at all, because
the Qur'an identifies 'Iman' i.e. belief as something not just
professed by the lips, but something which has entered one's heart
deeply, and that is possible only if a person analyses the message
through his reason and accepts it willingly. ... The Qur'an proclaims
that man hasthe freedom of choice to accept or reject the permanent
values of God. He CANNOT be forced to accept those values, but has
the free will to accept them, ... Had the punishment for Apostasy
been prescribed as 'Death' then the above verse (3:89) would not have
accommodated the room for amending one's conduct and repentence, but
with the inclusion of a condition ofrepentance and amending one's
conduct, the Qur'an confirms that forApostates the punishment is not
death." [Can
People be Forced to Accept Islam? A Qur’anic Perspective]
Muhammad
Ridzwan Rahmat
[Editor,
Ewadah.Com]
"Islam is a religion that has never been
forced upon. The very idea that a conversion into Islam is one way
street in which one can never turn from is a much dissipated myth.
The Quran prohibits Muslims to force Islam onto an individual.
Muslims past and present have largely converted into Islam out of
their own free will. ... Again, no authority has been granted to
Muslims to specifically kill the apostates of Islam should they mean
no harm. Apostates are to be treated fairly as non-Muslims.
Compulsion will not make sense in Islam." [Why
Do Muslims Kill Apostates? A Muslim Explains]
Professor
Shahul Hameed
[Consultant
of the Discover Islam Section, Islamonline.net; former Head of the
Department of English, Farook College, Calicut University, India;
President of Kerala Islamic Mission, Jama'at-e- Islami, Hind, Kerala
Zone) Calicut, Indi]
"the Noble Qur'an does not
prescribe death penalty for deserters of Islam, but rather states
that they would be in Hell in the hereafter (2:217) ... the ruling
was with reference to certain specific cases of miscreants who wished
to undermine Islam, by joining Islam first and then deserting it. ...
the killing of apostates would undermine the freedom of will Allah
has bestowed on each human, as is made clear in the verses ..."
[Apostasy,
Polygamy, and Adultery]
Riaz
Hasan
[former director of
Outreach for the Tracy Islamic Center, California, USA]
"Muslims
have direct relationship with God. It is required that you inform
others about your way of life (your faith); not pus(, not force. What
a person does with the information is between the person and God. He
or she will be answerable to God. It is not our job to judge, just to
provide information and share with others what good we have."
[Perceiving
the Afghan Christian role]
Ibrahim
Abusharif
[Editor, Starlatch
Press]
“It's important to note that apostasy rulings
have rarely been used in the heyday of Islamic civilization, a
ranging world conglomerate stretching from the western frontiers of
China, [to] the Indian subcontinent, to North and Sub-Saharan Africa,
Eastern Europe, and the western shores of Spain. There's absolutely
nothing in the élan or sacred paradigms of Islam that makes a
religious choice an anathema to Muslims. Not one reference in the
Qur’an that refers to people leaving the realm of faith
suggests the penalty of death.” [The
Legal Tradition of Islamic Apostasy]
Anwaar
Hussain
[Columnist,
PakTribune]
“In a screaming instance of a heart
rending paradox in the Muslim world, an Afghan convert to
Christianity is to be tried in a Kabul court for apostasy, a 'crime'
that is punishable by death in that country. Despite clear
injunctions in the Quran that "there is no compulsion in
religion" and "to you your own religion and to me, mine",
an innocent man may be executed while we stand by and watch this
gruesome charade in the name of God. … Fortunately, some
highly distinguished contemporary Islamic scholars based on renewed
ijtihad, hold absolutely differing views on the subject of apostasy.
… The historic fact remains that the Prophet (PBUH) never put
anyone to death for apostasy alone. No one was sentenced to death
solely for repudiation of faith unless accompanied by certain other
crimes. Those other crimes would have been punishable by death in any
contemporary state of the time. As a matter of fact the Quran is
completely silent on the question of death as a punishment for
apostasy. Apostasy simply does not qualify for temporal punishment.”
[In
the Name of God]
Organization:
The Iraqi Women Leaders Conference
[A
joint-project of the American Islamic Congress, the Foundation for
the Defense of
Democracies and the Independent Women’s
Forum]
"It is important to note that wine-drinking
(shrub) and apostasy (riddah) are not
hudud crimes and the
Qur’an specifies no punishment for these two offences. Yet,
Fiqh manuals have, erroneously, included shrub and riddah in the
category of hudud." [Building
and Planning]
Inayat
Bunglawala
[Media
secretary at the Muslim Council of Britain. He is also a co-presenter
of the weekly 'Politics and Media Show' on the Islam Channel (SKY
813)]
"To force someone to remain in a faith they do
not believe seems rather absurd as it negates the whole basis of
sincere belief and seems closer to officially endorsing
hypocrisy.
There is a famous remark attributed to the 19th
century Egyptian Muslim activist and scholar Muhammad Abduh who
visited various European countries and said 'I have been to many
Muslim countries and found many Muslims there, but little Islam. I
have also been to some European countries and found few Muslims
there, but a lot of Islam'." [Apostasy
and Islam]
Dr.
Taj Hashmi
[Professor,
Security Studies at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies,
Honolulu, Hawaii]
" ... the Islamic scripture or the
Quran spells out: "Let there be no compulsion in religion"
[2:256] and does not prescribe any death penalty for apostasy either:
"Surely (as for) those who believe then disbelieve, again
believe and again disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, Allah will
not forgive them nor guide them in the (right) path"
[4:137].
The Quran sanctions death penalty for murder and
other horrendous crimes, not apostasy." [Death
for apostasy and Shariah]
Ahmed
Bedier
[an expert on
Islam, media relations, civil rights, hate crimes and the mideast;
Tampa, FL, USA]
"A couple of days ago I joined CAIR
and others calling for his release. Alhamdulilla the Afghan
authorities did the right thing by dropping this case, that should
never have been one in the first place. For over a week now news
outlets reported that Abdul Rahman is facing the death penalty under
Islamic Law for leaving Islam, however they failed to point out that
this is not a unanimous opinion among all Muslim scholars. Also that
there is not a single verse in the Quran that commands the killing of
an apostate (a person leaving his faith)." [Afghan
Court Drops Case Against Christian Convert]
Dr.
S. M. Ghazanfar
[Ph.D. in
Economics, 1968 (Wash. State University), University of Idaho
faculty, 1968-2002]
"Arguments favoring death penalty
for apostasy being a pre-modern Islamic law, based on dubious
interpretations and weak hadith references, the subject has made
international headlines recently. And such issues further feed the
prevailing Western Islamophobia hysteria. Freedom of religion is
fundamental to Islam, mentioned in several verses of the Holy Qur'an
("Unto your religion, and unto me my religion," "Whosoever
will, let him believe," "There is no compulsion in
religion," etc.), clearly, the law of apostasy violates that
fundamental principle (which, of course, accords with UN Universal
Human Rights). It is about time the Islamic world formulates a fresh
school of thought that reconciles Islam with the contemporary, modern
world. Islamic intellectuals, indeed, facilitated European exit out
of Dark Ages, and sometimes it appears the Islamic world is now
reverting in that direction." [comments sent directly to this
site]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
As
a Muslim, do you believe in the freedom of faith, i.e., Islam is by
choice?
To add your voice to this
affirmation/statement, please send an email
toislambychoice@gmail.com with
your name, affiliation/occupation, highest degree/field, and country
of residence.
Does
the Imam or the leader of your community believe in the freedom of
faith?
Ask him and encourage him to
let the world know that Islam is by choice, not by coercion, by being
a signatory to the Statement.
Posted by MuslimUniverseat 11:38 PM8 comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
STATEMENT: Muslims Uphold the Freedom of Faith
While
affirming Islam as the way to Salvation, Muslims also affirm the
Freedom of Faith, because Islam is by CHOICE. Recently, Muslims of
diverse background issued a statement upholding the Freedom of
Faith.
*
The Statement [see the Archive]
*
The Signatories [see the Archive]
To
add your name to the signatories, send an email
toislambychoice@gmail.com with
your name, affiliation/occupation, highest degree/field, country of
residence.
Islam
is by Choice
THOSE WHO WERE CONSULTED IN PREPARING THE STATEMENT [partial list]
[In alphabetical order of the last name]
1. Dr. Asma Afsaruddin [Associate Professor, Arabic & Islamic Studies, University of Notre Dame]
2. Dr. Omar Afzal [retired from South Asian Collection, Cornell University]
3. Dr. Ahrar Ahmad [Professor of Political Science, Black Hills State University]
4. Dr. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad[President/Director, Minaret of Freedom Institute, Bethesda, Maryland; USA]
5. Dr. Mohammad Fadel [Faculty of Law, University of Toronto]
6. Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq[Upper Iowa University]
7. Mike Mohamed Ghouse[President, Muslim World Congress]
8. Shah Abdul Hannan [Chairman of Islamic Economic Research Bureau; Director, Islamic Bank Bangladesh Ltd; Bangladesh]
9. Dr. Layla al-Marayati [Muslim Women's League]
10. Dr. Sulayman Nyang[Professor, African Studies Department, Howard University]
11. Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina[Professor, University of Virginia]
Resources: Apostasy and Freedom of Faith
On Apostasy by Dr. Jamal Badawi
Freedom of religion by Dr. Mohammad Hashim Kamali
A Fresh Look at Freedom of Belief in Islam by Dr. Abdullah Saeed
Al-Azhar's Sheikh Tantawi on Apostasy
Interview with Dr. Hasan Turabi
Extremism Isn't Islamic Law by former Indonesian President
Apostasy, Freedom and Dawah: Full Disclosure in a Business-like Manner by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
Religious Freedom and the Law of Apostasy in Islam by Dr. Mahmoud Ayoub
Book (intro): Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam by Dr. Abdullah Saeed
From Fiqh to Qur'an: Resolving Apostasy by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
Islam and Punishment for Apostasy by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
Concept of Freedom in Islam by Dr. Mohamed Shahrour
Freedom to Change One's Religion by Dr. Irfan Ahmad Khan
Islam and religious freedom by Ibrahim Hooper
The Politics and Morality of Apostasy by Dr. Louay Safi
Penalty of Apostasy: A Historical and Fundamental Study by Dr. Ahmad Subhy Mansour
MPAC/Dr. Maher Hathout on Apostasy
Leaving Islam Is Not a Capital Crime by Dr. M. Cherif Bassiouni
Islam and Religious Freedom by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
Are The Scholars The Same As God Himself? Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballa
On Human Rights and The Qur'anic Perspective by Dr. Riffat Hassan
The Right to Religious Conversion: Between Apostasy and Proselytization by Dr. A. Rashied Omar
No earthly penalty for converts by Imam Farooq Abo-Elzahab.
Freedom, Tolerance and the Shari’ah by Imam Sadullah Khan
Interview: CAIR-FL's Ahmed Bedier
Is Apostasy a Capital Crime in Islam? by Dr. Jamal Badawi
The Punishment of Apostasy of Islam by Dr. Ahmad Shafaat
Islam and Freedom of Belief by Shaikh Ahmad Kutty
Apostasy Laws – An Injury To Islam By Muslims by Mirza A. Beg
Apostasy and the Notion of Religious Freedom in Islam by Sherazad Hamit
Islam, Apostasy and PAS by Sisters in Islam
Converts from Islam: Let God Be the Judge by Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballa
Apostasy and Judicial Separation in British India by Dr. Muhammad Khalid Masud
Affirmation of Freedom of Expression and Belief in the Quran by Haris Aziz
Islam & Pluralism: A Contemporary Approach by Shah Abdul Halim
The Legal Tradition of Islamic Apostasy by Ibrahim Abusharif
Is Killing An Apostate in the Islamic Law? by Ibrahim B. Syed
What Islam says on religious freedom [BBC News]
In The Name of God by Anwaar Hussain
Islam's Trajectory by David Forte
Afghan Convert Controversy: A Counter-Perspective on Apostasy in Islam by Yoginder Sikand
Newswatch: Apostasy (section under development)
Pakistan: New apostasy bill to impose death on anyone who leaves Islam
Malaysia rejects Muslim convert's bid to be recognized as Christian
Malaysia back-pedals into the future
Pakistan Government fails to oppose death for apostasy draft
Apology of an imam [Imam Fouad ElBayly retracts]
Dr. Hassan Turabi of Sudan Accused of Apostasy
Dr. Aminah Wadud accused of apostasy by Saudi Scholars
Injustice pushes family to apostasy
Free Expression should not warrant charges of Apostasy
Countries with Apostasy Law
Currently, the following countries in the Muslim World have Apostasy Law:
Afghanistan;
Iran;
Mauritania;
Pakistan;
Qatar;
Saudia
Arabia;
Sudan;
Yemen.
Source: Link
Resources: Islam by Choice
Mohammed The Prophet by K. S. Ramakrishna Rao
The Qur'anic Phenomenon by Malek Bennabi
The Probable Influence of Islam on Western Public and International Law by Dr. Marcel Boisard
Islamic Spirituality the forgotten revolution by Abdul-Hakim Murad
Islam and the Human Being by Marwa El-Naggar
Islam, Law and Custom: Redefining Muslim Women's Rights by Dr. Azizah al-Hibri
Freedom and Choice: The First Order Condition of Islam by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
The Ethics of Disagreement in Islam by Dr. Taha Jabir al-Alwani
Ulama, Hegemony and Reform by Chandra Muzaffar
Islam, a Force for Change by Graham Fuller
ABZs of Islam by George Rafael
Islam and Egalitarianism by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
Comment/Posting Guidelines
Comments/feedbacks are welcome. Please note that anonymous comments, or postings that resort to abuse or vulgarism are not posted.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question #1: Aren't there other scholars who have a different position about punishment of apostasy?
Yes, there are scholars who hold the traditional position of either capital punishment (hadd) or some form of punishment (ta'zir - discretionary) for apostasy. However, as the compilation of 100+ notable voices indicate that the position is tilting away from the traditional position.
Question #2: How can the traditional scholarship be wrong on this for so long?
This is an important question. However, as explained by many contemporary scholars, the traditional position failed to separate the issue of simple apostasy from treason. The real question is that Muslims are supposed to follow the Qur'an and the legacy of the Prophet.
While considering apostasy as a major sin, there is nothing in the Qur'an that suggests or specifies any punishment for simple apostasy (merely changing one's faith) in this world. Also, there is no incontrovertible hadith that informs us that during the time of the Prophet (s), there was any case of simple apostasy where worldly punishment was given.
Instead of asking the question how the traditional scholarship could be wrong for so long, the real question is whether we are supposed to uphold the Qur'an and the legacy of the Prophet. Furthemore, do we as Muslims affirm the freedom of faith, which includes the freedom to change one's faith? That's the crux of the issue.
Question #3: Why does this blog focus only on apostasy? Aren't there other pressing problems?
Yes, there are other pressing problems or issues. However, this is just a focused approach, where resources addressing one particular issue or problem are being presented. Such focused presentations can be helpful for those who want to understand a particular problem or issue.
Furthermore, apostasy issue is related to a fundamental principle of freedom, which is central to Islam and it has many other ramifications. It is also indicative and test of our attitude of tolerance. There is also abuse of this apostasy law or rules. While the issue of apostasy should pertain primarily to those who abandons Islam and publicly avow so, it is undeniable that apostasy law has been also wrongfully directed against even fellow Muslims.
Question #4: Is this a fatwa?
No. Fatwa is issued by competent religious scholars/authorities. This is an initiative to raise our collective awareness at the broader level. However, the 100+ opinions/views presented at this blog also include some specific fatwas, for examples, from Shaikh Mahmuf al-Shaltut [former and late Grand Mufti of al-Azhar], Shaikh Al-Tantawi [Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar], Dr. Sheikh Mohammed Ali Al-Hanooti [Mufti of Greater Washington], and so on.
Question #5: What is the relevance of non-expert/non-scholarly endorsements of this Statement?
We all will stand before Allah for our own accountability. We as Muslims are supposed to understand and know our faith and also take stand on fundamental matters as part of affirming our faith. Indeed, on such matters, where are collective awareness and understanding are at stake, it is vitally important that such broadbased expression of views are on the record for the humanity. On fundamental matters of principles, it cannot be left to a selected or privileged view to exclusively speak for all of us. More importantly, in a world, where there is so much confusion about Islam both among Muslims and non-Muslims, and also with so much prejudicial propaganda against Islam, we must clearly let the world know that we value, cherish and uphold Islam, but Islam that is by choice, as per the sublime values of the Qur'an and the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad (p). The bottom line is that since it is a collective awareness-raising initiative, it requires broader participation from both experts/scholars as well as non-experts/non-scholars.
Qur'anic Verse of the Month [December/2011]
To be a Muslim or Believer is to stand for justice for ALL
"O
you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God,
even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether
it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow
not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you swerve, and if you distort
(justice) or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted
with all that you do." [4/an-Nisa/135]
Blog Archive
On Apostasy and Islam: 100+ Notable Islamic Voices...
Accountability for Injustice and Wrongful Violence
The
Prophet Muhammad (p) said: "God will definitely enforce the
settlement of all the dues to those entitled to receive them on the
Day of Judgment, even the wrong done to a hornless goat by a horned
goat will be addressed." [Sahih Muslim, #6252]
Islam and You
Know Islam
Understand Islam
Experience Islam
Live Islam
Cherish Islam
Enjoy Islam
Share Islam
The Qur'an: Recommended Resources
The Message of the Qur'an: Muhammad Asad
Ulum al Qur'an by Ahmad Von Denffer
Key Qur'anic Verses with Brief Commentary by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
The Way to the Qur'an by Khurram Murad
The Generous Qur'an: Ten Selected Suras by Dr. Michael Sells
Assessing English Translations of the Qur'an by Dr. Khaleel Mohammed
Free Qur'an for Non-Muslims: Explore the Qur'an by CAIR
Qur'an: Translations in various languages at Islamicity
Qur'an: Script, Recitation & Translations at Islamicity
Must Read Books on Islam
The Message of The Qur'an by Muhammad Asad
Concepts of the Qur'an: A Topical Reading by Dr. Fathi Osman
Struggling to Surrender by Dr. Jeffrey Lang
Islam, the West, and Challenges of Modernity by Tariq Ramadan
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by Allamah Muhammad Iqbal
The Preaching Of Islam: A History Of The Propagation Of The Muslim Faith by Sir T. W. Arnold
Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time by Karen Armstrong
The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity by Dr. Sayyid Hossein Nasr
Islamic Futures: The Shape of Ideas to Come by Dr. Ziauddin Sardar
Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl
Remembrance and Prayer: The Way of Prophet Muhammad by Shaikh Muhammad al-Ghazali
Islam: The Straight Path by Dr. John Esposito
Ka'ba in Makkah
A
place of assembly for mankind (an-Nas) and a safe sanctuary [The
Qur'an/2:125]
Madinah al-Munawara, the resting place of the Prophet Muhammad (p)
"You
have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of
conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day"
[Al-Qur'an/33:21]
The Mercy and Grace (Rahmah) of God
The
Prophet Muhammad said: "There are one hundred (parts of) mercy
for Allah and He has sent down out of these one part of mercy upon
the jinn and human beings and the insects and it is because of this
(one part) that they love one another, show kindness to one another
and even the beast treats its young one with affection, and Allah has
reserved ninetynine parts of mercy with which He would treat His
servants on the Day of Resurrection." [Sahih Muslim, #6631]
More Illustrations of God's Grace flowing through His Creations
The
Prophet Muhammad (p) said: "God is Kind and he likes kindness in
everything." [Sunan Ibn Majah, #3684]
"Let there be no hostility except against those who practice Zulm (oppression)" [al-Qur'an/2:193]
Peaceful
coexistence of the humanity. It can be learnt by all of us.
Qur'anic verse of the Month [May/2007]
Seeking common grounds is an Islamic imperative
"Say: 'O people of the Book! come to common terms as between us and you: that we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, lords and patrons other than God.' If then they turn back, say: 'Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to God's Will).'" [3/Ale Imran/64]
Qur'anic verse of the Month [April/2007]
Islam is not a new religion that began with the Prophet Muhammad (p)
"The same religion (deen) has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah - the which We have sent by inspiration to thee - and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein: to those who worship other things than Allah, hard is the (way) to which thou callest them. Allah chooses to Himself those whom He pleases, and guides to Himself those who turn (to Him)." [42/ash-Shura/13]
From God: Nature's Beauty and Bounty
"Who
has created the heavens and the earth, and Who sends you down rain
from the sky? Yea, with it We cause to grow well-planted orchards
full of beauty of delight: it is not in your power to cause the
growth of the trees in them. (Can there be another) god besides
Allah? Nay, they are a people who swerve from justice."
[Al-Qur'an/27:60]
More beauties from God
"See
you not that Allah sends down rain from the sky, and forthwith the
earth becomes green? For Allah is He Who understands the finest
mysteries, and is well-acquainted (with them)." [al-Qur'an:
22:63]
"See
you not that Allah sends down rain from the sky? ... And in the
mountains are tracts white and red, of various shades of colour, and
black intense in hue." [al-Qur'an/35:27]
More Bounties from God
"See
you not that Allah sends down rain from the sky? With it We then
bring out produce of various colors" [al-Qur'an/35:27]
POEM: Love - Falling and Flying into Freedom
Jalaluddin Rumi
The
way of love is not a subtle argument.
The door there is
devastation.
Birds make great sky-
circles of their
freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and
falling
they’re given wings.
From The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A.J. Arberry, Reynold Nicholson. Castle Books, 1995.
POEM: A New World
Hafiz
Let's
offer flowers, pour a cup of libation,
split open the skies and
start anew on creation.
If
the forces of grief invade our lovers' veins,
cupbearer and I
will wash away this temptation.
With
rose water we'll mellow crimson wine's bitter cup;
we'll sugar
the fire to sweeten smoke's emanation.
Take
this fine lyre, musician, strike up a love song;
let's dance,
sing all night, go wild in celebration.
As
dust, 0 West Wind, let us rise to the Heavens,
floating free in
Creator's glow of elation.
If
mind desires to return while heart cries to stay,
here's a
quarrel for love's deliberation.
Alas,
these words and songs go for naught in this land;
come, Hafez,
let's create a new generation.
Courtesy: The Spiritual Wisdom of Hafez: Teachings of the Philosopher of Love, by Haleh Pourafzal / Roger Montgomery Amazon.com
POEM: The Choice is Yours
Allamah Muhammad Iqbal
If
the kings know not their Sustainer,
they are beggars,
And
if the beggars do
they are Darius and Jamshed;
Freedom of
the heart is sovereignity;
stomach is death,
The choice is
yours;
heart or stomach?
Source: Link
Poem: Forgive Us, O Prophet!
Kazi
Nazrul Islam
(translated from Bangla by Mohammad Omar Farooq)
We
haven't embraced your message,
Please forgive us, O Prophet!*
We
have forgotten your ideals
And the path for us that you did
set.*
Please forgive us, O Prophet!*
You
trampled like dust
Luxury and wealth, O master!*
You never
dreamed that
We will be kings or lords of disaster!*
In
this world's resource and treasure
Everyone has right of due
measure;*
You proclaimed, on this earth,
Equal son's
treatment all will get.*
Please forgive us, O Prophet!*
In
your religion, toward the unbelievers
You did not direct any
hate;*
You served them as your fellows,
For all of them was
open your hospitable gate.*
To
demolish temples of others anywhere on land,
O valiant, you did
not ever command;*
Now even difference in opinion from others
We
can't bear or tolerate.*
Please forgive us, O Prophet!*
You
did not seek in the name of faith
Meaningless and shameful
killing or fight;*
You did not place sword in our hand,
Rather
gave us guidance, so noble and upright.*
Ignoring
your tolerance and Magnanimity,
We have elevated fanaticism to a
warped nobility;*
Is that why, from the heavenly fountain,
Does
not flow that mercy, so divine and great?*
Please forgive us, O
Prophet!*
We
haven't embraced your message
Please forgive us, O Prophet!*
We
have forgotten your ideals
And the path for us that you did
set.*
Please forgive us, O Prophet!*
Courtesy: Kazi Nazrul Islam Page
POEM: Bloom Like A Rose
Hakim Sanai
Your
heartrending fire
made me bloom like a rose.
I
died at your feet
and returned fast to life.
My
inborn freedom
offered nothing in profit;
but now I am
free,
since becoming your slave.
Courtesy: -- from Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition, Translated by David Fideler / Translated by Sabrineh Fideler
This Blog is developed and maintained by Team Islam-by-Choice. We are Muslims from a diverse background, who believe in Islam and, as per Islamic principles, uphold the freedom of faith. This blog is dedicated to presenting issues pertaining to freedom in general and apostasy in particular from the Islamic perspective. [April 2007]
For more info, contact: islambychoice@gmail.com