Apostasy
Major and
Minor
By
Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi**
|
Apr.
13, 2006
|
|
Dr.
Yusuf Al-Qaradawi |
Facing
Apostasy: The Role of Muslims
Major
and Minor Apostasy
Why
Is Apostasy Severely Punished in Islam?
Ideological
Guidelines
Refuting
Objection of Intellectuals
Apostasy
of Rulers
Hidden
Apostasy
Facing
Apostasy: The Role of Muslims
The
greatest kind of danger that faces Muslims is that which threatens
their moral aspect of existence, i.e., their belief. That is why
apostasy from Islam is regarded as one of the most dangerous threats
to the Muslim community. The ugliest intrigue the enemies of Islam
have plotted against Islam has been to try to lure its followers
away from it; they have even used force for this purpose. In this
regard, Almighty Allah says, [And they will not cease from
fighting against you till they have made you renegades from your
religion, if they can.] (Al-Baqarah 2:217)
In
the contemporary age, the Muslim community has been exposed to
horrendous invasions and aggressive attacks, one of which is the
missionary invasion that aims at uprooting the Muslim community
altogether. This invasion began its missions with the Western
colonialism (of the Muslim world), and it still exercises its
activities in the Muslim world and among the Muslim communities and
minorities (in non-Muslim countries). One of its goals is to entice
Muslims to convert to Christianity. This goal was made clear in the
North American Conference on Muslim Evangelization (that was held in
Colorado in 1978). Forty studies about Islam and Muslims and how to
spread Christianity among them were submitted to that conference,
and US$1 billion was allocated for this purpose. In addition, the
Zwemer Institute (in South Carolina) was established to train
missionaries to preach Christianity to Muslims.
Another
example is the communist invasion that spread through many Muslim
countries in Asia and Europe and made every effort to put an end to
Islam and grow generations who know nothing about Islam at all.
The
third and most dangerous and cunning kind is the secular invasion,
which still plays its role in the Muslim world, sometimes openly,
and sometimes in disguise. It seeks to undermine true Islam and
approves of the superstitious manifestations that are falsely
claimed to belong to Islam.
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.
That
was what Abu Bakr and the Prophet's Companions (may Allah be pleased
with them) did when they fought against the apostates who followed
Musailemah the Liar, Sijah, and Al-Aswad Al-`Ansi, who falsely
claimed to be Allah's prophets after the demise of Prophet Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him). Those apostates had been about to
nip the Islamic call in the bud.
It
is extremely dangerous to see apostasy prevailing in the Muslim
community without facing it. A contemporary scholar described the
apostasy prevailing in this age saying, "What an apostasy; yet
no Abu Bakr is there to (deal with) it."1
Muslims
are to seriously resist individual apostasy before it seriously
intensifies and develops into a collective one.
That
is why the Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be
punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment
to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four
main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali)
as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite
schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and
Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.
In
this regard, many hadiths were reported in different wordings on the
authority of a number of Companions, such as Ibn `Abbas, Abu Musa,
Mu`adh, `Ali, `Uthman, Ibn Mas`ud, `A'ishah, Anas, Abu Hurairah, and
Mu`awiyah ibn Haidah.
For
example, Ibn `Abbas quoted the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
him) as having said, "Whoever
changes his religion, then kill him."
A
similar wording of the hadith was reported on the authority of Abu
Hurairah and Mu`awiyah ibn Haidah with a sound chain of
transmission. Also, Ibn Mas`ud reported the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) as having said, "The
blood of a Muslim who testifies that there is no god but Allah and
that I am the Messenger of Allah is not lawful to shed unless he be
one of three: a married adulterer, someone killed in retaliation for
killing another, or someone who abandons his religion and the Muslim
community."
Another
version of this hadith was reported by `Uthman, "The blood
of a Muslim is not lawful to shed unless he be one of three, a
person that turned apostate after (embracing) Islam or committed
adultery after having married, or killed a person without just
cause."
The
eminent scholar Ibn Rajab said, "Punishing a person by death
for committing any of these sins is agreed upon among Muslims."2
`Ali
ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) punished some people
who apostatized from Islam and claimed that he was a god by putting
them to fire after having reprimanded them and asked them to return
to Islam but to no avail. He put them to fire saying these following
lines of poetry:
When
I saw the matter so flagrant,
I
kindled fire and summoned for Qanbar"
Qanbar
was the servant of Imam `Ali.3
Ibn
`Abbas did not agree with `Ali about burning the apostates, quoting,
as evidence for his opinion, the Prophet's hadith, "Do not
punish anybody with Allah's punishment (of fire)."
According to Ibn `Abbas, the apostates should have been killed by a
means other than burning. Thus, Ibn `Abbas was not against killing
the apostates in principle, but against killing them by fire.
Abu
Musa and Mu`adh also punished a Jew by death, as he had embraced
Islam and then reverted back to Judaism. Mu`adh said about that:
"It is the verdict of Allah and His Messenger."
`Abdur-Raziq
also reported, "Ibn Mas`ud held in custody some Iraqi people
who had apostatized from Islam, and then wrote to Caliph `Umar
asking him what to do with them. `Umar wrote him back, saying, 'Ask
them to return to the true religion (of Islam) and the Testimony of
Faith. If they are to accept this, set them free, and if they are to
reject it, then kill them.' When Ibn Mas`ud did so, some of the
apostates repented and some refused, and thus, he set free the
repentant and killed those who renounced Islam after being
believers."4
The
Prophet (PBUH) accepted the repentance of a group of
apostates... |
|
It
is also reported on the authority of Abu `Umar Ash-Shaybani that
when Al-Mustawrad Al-`Ajli converted to Christianity after having
embraced Islam, `Utbah ibn Farqad sent him to `Ali, who asked him to
return to Islam, but he refused, and thus `Ali killed him.5
Major
and Minor Apostasy
Ibn
Taymiyah mentioned that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
him) accepted the repentance of a group of apostates, and he ordered
that another group of apostates, who had committed other harmful
acts to Islam and the Muslims, be killed.
For
instance, on the day of the conquest (fath) of Makkah, the
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered that Maqis ibn
Subabah be killed, as he had not only apostatized from Islam but
also insulted and killed a Muslim person. He (peace and blessings be
upon him) also ordered that Ibn Abi Sarh be killed, as he had
apostatized from Islam and also sought to spread falsehood and
slander.
In
this respect, Ibn Taymiyah differentiated between two kinds of
apostasy, an apostasy which does not cause harm to the Muslim
society and an apostasy in which apostates wage war against Allah
and His Messenger and spread mischief in the land. The repentance of
the apostates in the first kind is accepted; while in the second
kind, it is not if it occurs after the apostates have fallen into
the power of the Muslim authority.6
Ibn
Taymiyah differentiated between the harmful apostasy and the
harmless one. |
|
`Abdur-Raziq,
Al-Baihaqi, and Ibn Hazm reported that Anas returned from a mission
for jihad and went to `Umar, who asked him, "What has been done
with the six people from (the tribe) of Bakr ibn Wa'il who have
apostatized from Islam?" Anas said, "O Commander of the
Believers, they are people who turned apostate and joined the
polytheists, and thus they were killed in the battle." `Umar
commented, "We belong to Allah and to Him we will return."
Anas wondered, "Had their penalty been but death?" `Umar
replied, "Yes. I would have asked them to return to Islam, and
had they refused, I would have imprisoned them."7
This
attitude of `Umar was also held by Ibrahim An-Nakh`I, and Ath-Thawri,
who said, "This is the viewpoint that we follow."8
Ath-Thawri also said, "The punishment of the apostate is to be
deferred so long as there is a hope that he may return to
Islam."9
In
my point of view, as the scholars have differentiated between major
and minor innovations in religion and between mere innovators and
those who spread and call for their innovations in religion, we can
also differentiate between major and minor apostasy, and between
apostates who do not wage war against Islam and Muslims and those
who proclaim their apostasy and call for it.
Major
apostasy, which the apostate proclaims and openly calls for in
speech or writing, is to be, with all the more reason, severely
punished by the death penalty, according to the majority of scholars
and the apparent meaning of the Prophet's hadiths. Otherwise, An-Nakh`i
and Ath-Thawri's view which was built on `Umar's attitude may be
followed.
Apostates
who call for apostasy from Islam have not only become disbelievers
in Islam but have also become enemies of Islam and the Muslim
nation. They, by doing so, fall under the category of those who wage
war against Almighty Allah and His Messenger and spread mischief in
the land.
According
to Ibn Taymiyah, waging war against something may be done by already
attacking it or by speaking against it. The latter may be far more
dangerous than the former with regard to religions. So is also the
case with spreading mischief: it may be through causing physical
damage or through causing moral harm, and the latter is, likewise,
far more hazardous than the former with regard to religions. This
proves how much more harmful it is to wage war against Allah and His
Messenger by speaking against them and seeking to spread mischief in
the land.10
In
Arab culture, we say that the pen is mightier than the tongue.
Writing about something may be far more effective than merely
speaking about it, especially in this day and age, as writings can
be widely published.
On
another hand, the apostate is deprived of its love, loyalty, and
cooperation according to Almighty Allah's words, [And he amongst
you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them] (Al-Ma'idah
5:51). This far exceeds the punishment of execution in the view of
the people of common sense.
Why
Is Apostasy Severely Punished in Islam?
The
Muslim community is based on belief and faith. Belief is the basic
foundation of its identity, pivot, and spirit of its life. That is
why it does not allow anyone to harm this identity. Hence,
proclaiming apostasy is considered the most flagrant crime in the
eyes of Islam as it poses a danger to the identity of the Muslim
community and its moral being. In other words, it jeopardizes the
first five main objectives of the Shari`ah, which Islam with its
moral and legislative systems seeks to preserve — religion, life,
offspring, the intellect, and property. Religion occupies the very
first place here as believers may sacrifice themselves, their
country, and their wealth for the sake of their religion.
Islam
does not compel people to join it nor does it force anybody to
accept or to leave any other religion, but it places great
importance upon conviction for those who embrace it. Almighty Allah
says, [Had your Lord willed, all the people on earth would have
believed. So can you (Prophet) compel people to believe?] (Yunus
10:99)
Almighty
Allah does not accept that religion be taken lightly… |
|
He
Almighty also says, [Let there be no compulsion in
religion: truth stands out clear from error.] (Al-Baqarah
2:256)
However,
Almighty Allah does not accept that religion be taken lightly: a
person joining it one day and forsaking it another day, in the like
manner of the group of Jews about whom the Qur'an says, [A
section of the People of the Book say: believe in the morning what
is revealed to the believers, but reject it at the end of the day;
perchance they may (themselves) turn back.] (Aal `Imran 3:72)
Besides,
Islam does not call for the execution of apostates who do not
proclaim their apostasy or call for it. Rather, it leaves the
punishment for the hereafter if they die in the state of apostasy,
as Almighty Allah says, [And if any of you turn back from their
faith and die in unbelief, their works will bear no fruit in this
life and in the hereafter; they will be companions of the fire and
will abide therein.] (Al-Baqarah 2:217). However, this
type of apostate may receive a discretionary punishment in this
world.
Islam
does not call for the execution of apostates who do not
proclaim their apostasy or call for it. |
|
The
death penalty with regard to apostasy is to be applied only to those
who proclaim their apostasy and call for others to do the same.
Islam lays down this severe punishment in order to protect its unity
and the identity of its community. Every community in this world has
basic foundations that are to be kept inviolable, such as identity,
loyalty, and allegiance. Accordingly, no community accepts that a
member thereof changes its identity or turns his or her loyalty to
its enemies. They consider betrayal of one's country a serious
crime, and no one has ever called for giving people a right to
change their loyalty from a country to another whenever they like.
Apostasy
is not only an intellectual situation whose handling is confined to
discussing the principle of freedom of belief; it also involves a
change of loyalty and identity. People who apostatize from Islam
give up their loyalty to the Muslim nation and pay allegiance, heart
and soul, to its enemies. This is denoted in the agreed-upon hadith
that clarifies the kinds of people whose blood is lawful to shed and
describes among those people the apostate, by saying, "Or
someone who abandons his religion and the Muslim community" (Ibn
Mas`ud).
Apostasy
involves a change of loyalty and identity… |
|
The
phrase, "And the Muslim community," is part of the
description of an apostate; this entails that every apostate from
Islam by implication abandons the Muslim community.
Although
apostasy is a criminal act, apostates' rights are not to be
violated, nor are they punished except for the things they do or
proclaim, verbally or in writing (against Islam and the Muslims); as
speaking or acting against Islam openly is a clear-cut disbelief and
cannot be interpreted otherwise. Should there be any doubt in this
regard, the person accused of apostasy would be given the benefit of
the doubt.
Negligence
in punishing apostates who proclaim and call for their apostasy
jeopardizes the whole community and exposes it to afflictions whose
consequences Almighty Allah only knows. This may lead to apostates'
enticing other people, especially the gullible and those of weak
faith, to join them. This, in turn, may lead to those apostates
forming a group hostile to the Muslim nation and seeking the help of
its enemies against it. In this way, the Muslim nation will fall
into intellectual, social, and political disputes and
disintegration, which may develop into bloody ones or even into a
civil war that could destroy everything.
One
scenario took place in Afghanistan when a group of people gave up
their religion and adopted communist beliefs after they had studied
in Russia. They were recruited by the Communist party. The Afghani
people were heedless of this danger, which gave the chance for this
group to hold power in Afghanistan; and by virtue of their
authority, they set to wholly change the identity of the Muslim
community there. But the Muslim Afghans did not give in; they
resisted as much as they could and formed the valiant Afghani jihad
against the communist apostates, who even dared to request Russian
military help against their people and country. The Russian troops
attacked Afghanistan with tanks and artillery and heavily bombarded
it.
That
was the scenario of the ten-year-long civil war that destroyed
Afghanistan and caused the death and injury of millions of people
there.
All
that was a result of ignoring the issue of the apostates and
remaining silent about their crime of apostasy from the beginning.
Had those renegades been punished before the situation became
serious, the Afghani people would have been saved from the evils of
this aggressive war and its destructive results.
Ideological
Guidelines
I
would like to lay down the following guidelines that are relevant to
judging apostates:
1.
Judging whether someone has apostatized from his or her religion
is a very serious matter that entails being deprived of his or her
family and community. When a married man apostatizes from Islam,
he is separated from his wife and children, as it is not lawful
for a Muslim woman to be married to a disbeliever;11
and with regard to children, he is no longer trusted to take care
of them. In addition, there is a material punishment to be
inflicted upon him, according to the scholarly consensus. Hence,
all kinds of certainty must be established when judging a person
— who has been certainly known to be a Muslim — as an
apostate. Mere doubt here is to be disregarded altogether. One of
the most horrendous things which the Prophet's Sunnah seriously
warned against is to label someone disbeliever without having any
legal proof to say so.
2.
Issuing fatwas about the apostasy of a certain person is within
the competence of reputable scholars who are well-versed in
Islamic jurisprudence and can differentiate between clear-cut
evidences and those which are ambiguous, between the verses whose
meanings are established and those whose meanings are allegorical,
and between religious texts wherefrom possible deductions may be
made and those which must be taken literally. They are not to
label someone an apostate unless there is no alternative but to do
so, such as (making sure that) he or she has denied a
fundamentally established principle of religion or mocked at it,
or insulted Almighty Allah and His Messenger publicly, verbally or
in writing, and the like.
The
gravity and seriousness of the issue of passing judgment in this
regard dictates that it is not left at any rate to the discretion
of unqualified scholars, who may give hasty and groundless
judgments in this respect.
3.
It is the Muslim ruler who should
carry out the punishment of the apostate. The punishment should be
decided according to the judgment of the Muslim judiciary. This
judgment should be based only on Almighty Allah's Law, which
derives its rulings from the evidences in Allah's Book and the
Sunnah of His Messenger, as the Qur'an and Sunnah are the main
sources to which people are to resort when they differ on
something. Almighty Allah says in this respect, [If ye have a
dispute concerning any matter, refer it to Allah and the Messenger
if ye are (in truth) believers in Allah and the Last Day] (An-Nisaa'
4:59).
The
qualification for being a competent judge in Islam requires that
one possess knowledge of the rulings of Shari`ah by way of
personal reasoning (ijtihad) from primary religious texts.
And if a person lacks this qualification, he or she must seek the
help of reputable scholars who are capable of ijtihad, so
that they can uncover the truth and not issue groundless judgments
or pass them out of whims, in which case he would be doomed to
Hellfire (on the Day of Judgment).
4.
The majority of scholars are of the opinion that apostates should
be asked to repent and return to Islam before punishment is
inflicted upon them. Moreover, Ibn Taymiyah, in his book, As-Sarim
Al-Maslul `ala Shatim Ar-Rasul,, wrote, "The Prophet's
Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) were unanimous that
the apostate be asked to repent and return to Islam before
punishment is inflicted upon him."
Some
jurists say that an apostate should be given a 3 day respite to
repent; some say it is less than this, some say it is more, and some
others say he is to be asked for this for as long as he lives. Some
scholars, however, made exception of the hypocrite (zendiq),
who pretends to be a Muslim never actually was. According to certain
scholars, repentance cannot be accepted from hypocrites. This
applies also to those who insult the Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him).
The
purpose of the respite given to apostates here is to give them a
chance to review their situation, as they may overcome their state
of confusion and become convinced of Islam as the true religion; if
they are really seekers of the truth. But if their apostasy is based
on desires or an activity in the interest of the enemies of Islam,
may Almighty Allah severely punish them.
Some
contemporary intellectuals say that it is Almighty Allah, not man,
who accepts (or refuses) repentance. But this has to do with the
rulings of the hereafter. As with those of this world, the apparent
repentance (of sinners), and declaring their Islam, is to be
accepted by the concerned authorities. Almighty Allah orders us to
judge people according to their apparent states, and their
intentions are up to Him to decide upon. In this regard, an
authentic hadith is reported to the effect that the blood and
property of those who bear witness that there is no god but Allah
will be inviolable and that their reckoning will be with Allah
(concerning their intentions and what they harbor in their hearts).
Therefore,
if individuals were to take it upon themselves to label people as
apostates and judge them accordingly as deserving the death penalty,
and, moreover, seek to implement the penalty themselves, it would
pose a great danger to people's lives and properties. If this were
to happen, it would entail that ordinary unqualified people would
possess three authorities simultaneously: the authority of giving
fatwas — by accusing certain people of being apostates — the
authority of passing judgments, and the authority of carrying out
those judgments. In other words, they would be acting as muftis,
prosecutors, judges, and police all together.
Refuting
Objection of Intellectuals
Some
contemporary writers who are not versed in religious knowledge
object to the penalty of proclaimed apostasy being death by saying
that this penalty is not mentioned in the Qur'an. It is only
mentioned in a hadith ahad (hadith that is narrated by people
whose number does not reach that of the mutawatir, which is
hadith that is narrated by such a large number of people that they
cannot be expected to agree upon a lie, all of them together); and
hadiths ahad, according to them, are not taken as evidences
for the legal punishments prescribed by Shari`ah.
But
this objection is refutable in many aspects as follows. First,
according to the scholarly consensus, the authentic Sunnah is a
source for applied rulings in Shari`ah. Almighty Allah says, [Say:
Obey Allah and obey the Messenger.] (An-Nur 24:54). He also
says, [Whoso obeyeth the Messenger obeyeth Allah.] (An-Nisaa'
4:80)
As
for the hadiths specifying the death penalty for apostates, they
have been proven to be authentic. Besides, they were put into effect
by the Companions in the era of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs.
In
addition, claiming that hadiths ahad are not taken as
evidences for the legally prescribed punishments is not tenable, as
all the followed schools of jurisprudence have depended in
prescribing the penalty for alcohol consumption on the hadiths ahad
reporting the punishment thereof. However, the hadiths ahad
which were reported about the penalty of apostasy are greater in
number and more authentic than those reported about the punishment
of alcohol consumption.
Had
it been true that hadiths ahad were not to be applicable with
regard to the legally prescribed penalties, this would have led to
disregarding the Sunnah as the second primary source of Shari`ah
right after the Qur'an, or at least disregarding 95 percent (if not
99 percent) thereof. This, in turn, would have also undermined the
principle of abiding by Allah Almighty's Qur'an and the Sunnah of
His Prophet. This is because, scholarly speaking, hadiths ahad
constitute the majority of the hadiths tackling the rulings of
Shari`ah; and mutawatir hadiths, which are analogous to ahad
ones, are of such rarity that some eminent scholars of Hadith, as
mentioned by Ibn As-Salah in his distinguished introduction of the
Sciences of Hadith, said that they are hardly found.
Many
of the writers denying hadiths ahad as a source of the
rulings of Shari`ah do not know what exactly hadiths ahad
refer to. They think that they are those reported only by one
transmitter of Hadith, which is wrong, as hadiths ahad are
those related by groups of individuals fewer than those said to have
related mutawatir hadiths at one or more stages of the
transmission of the hadiths, though traced through contiguous,
successive narrators back to the Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him). An ahad hadith may have been reported by two,
three, four, or more Companions and still a multiple number of
successors reported it on their authority.
In
this respect, the hadith referring to inflicting the death penalty
upon apostates was reported by a large number of the Companions,
some of whom were referred to above. Hence, it is a clear well-known
hadith in this respect.
Second,
another considerable source of Shari`ah in Islam is scholarly
consensus (on the rulings thereof). With regard to apostasy, all
Muslim jurists of all schools of jurisprudence, Sunni and Shiite,
agree that apostates must be punished. And most jurists,
furthermore, agree, with the exception of `Umar, An-Nakh`i, and
Ath-Thawri, that their punishment is death. Nevertheless, there is
scholarly consensus that apostasy is considered a punishable crime.
Third,
some early Muslim scholars are of the opinion that the following
verse refers to how to deal with apostates, [The punishment of
those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with
might and main for mischief through the land is: execution] (Al-Ma'idah
5:33). Of those scholars are Abu Qulabah and others.12
We
have referred to Ibn Taymiyah's opinion to the effect that waging
war against Allah and His Messenger by speaking openly against them
is more dangerous to Islam than physically attacking its followers
and that moral mischief in the land is more hazardous than physical
mischief.
This
is further supported by the fact that among the hadiths that say
that the blood of a Muslim is not lawful to shed unless he be one of
three persons, there is a hadith reported on the authority of `A'ishah
to the same effect, but instead of saying, "Someone who
abandons his religion and the Muslim community," she
reported, "Or someone who goes out waging war against Allah
and His Messenger, in which case he is to be killed, crucified, or
expelled from the land.'' This proves that the immediately
above-mentioned verse includes reference to the apostates.
Note
also that Almighty Allah says, [O ye who believe! Whoso of you
becometh a renegade from his religion, (know that in his stead)
Allah will bring a people whom He loveth and who love Him, humble
toward believers, stern toward disbelievers, striving in the way of
Allah, and fearing not the blame of any blamer. Such is the grace of
Allah which He giveth unto whom He will. Allah is All-Embracing,
All-Knowing.] (Al-Ma'idah 5:54)
This
verse indicates that Almighty Allah has prepared a group of
believers, whose characteristics are referred to in the verse, to
deal with apostates, by being "stern toward
disbelievers," as was the case with Abu Bakr and the
believing Companions with him when they protected Islam against
apostasy.
There
are also a number of verses about the hypocrites indicating that
they protected themselves against being killed because of their
disbelief by way of making false oaths to the contrary to flatter
the believers. Among these verses are the following, [They have
made their oaths a screen (for their misdeeds)] (Al-Mujadilah
58:16); [They will swear unto you that ye may be pleased
with them] (At-Tawbah 9:96); and
[They swear by Allah that
they said nothing (wrong), yet they did say the word of disbelief]
(At-Tawbah 9:74).
According
to these verses, the hypocrites denied their disbelief and swore to
it, which indicates also that had there been clear proofs of their
disbelief, their false oaths would not have protected them from
being punished.13
Apostasy
of Rulers
The
most dangerous kind of apostasy is that of rulers, whom are supposed
to protect the Muslim nation's beliefs, resist apostasy, and uproot
apostates altogether from the Muslim community. However, we find
that many rulers welcome apostasy secretly and openly; proclaim
dissoluteness flagrantly and in disguise; and protect apostates and
confer titles and decorations upon them.
These
kinds of rulers favor Allah's enemies and are against Allah's true
worshippers. They take religious beliefs lightly, belittle Shari`ah,
disrespect divine and prophetic ordinances and prohibitions, and
disdain the sacred emblems and symbols of the Muslim nation, namely,
the members of the Prophet’s household, his pious Companions, the
Rightly-Guided Caliphs, the eminent religious scholars, and the
heroes of Islam.
Moreover,
they consider adhering to the ordinances of Islam, such as the
performing of prayers in mosques for men and the wearing of veils
for women, a crime and a manifestation of extremism. Not only this,
but they also seek to proclaim and apply the philosophy of
"undermining the sources" (from which the true Muslims
derive the right courses to follow) in the educational process, the
media, and the culture, so as to hinder the construction of a true
Muslim mentality. Furthermore, they pursue the true callers for
Islam and obstruct every faithful call and movement that aims at
reviving religion and upgrading this world on its basis.
However,
it is strange that this kind of people, in spite of their flagrant
apostasy, are interested in preserving the outward appearance of
Islam, so that they cunningly use it in demolishing Islam; the
Muslim nation thus treats them as Muslims, yet they seek to
undermine its basic internal structure (of belief). They may even
seek to have a connection with religion by encouraging false
manifestations of religion and bringing close to them insincere
religious scholars who flatter them and who are described by some as
"the scholars of the (political) authority and agents of the
police."
The
situation is thus complicated, for if those people hold in their
power the official bodies responsible for issuing fatwas and the
judiciary, who may judge them as apostates or punish them for their
open disbelief? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
referred to the open disbelief of this kind of people in a hadith
that states the following:
`Ubadah
ibn As-Samit said, "We gave the Prophet the pledge of
allegiance for Islam, and among the conditions on which he took
the pledge from us, was that we were … not to fight against the
ruler unless we noticed him having open kufr (disbelief),
for which we would have a proof with us from Allah." (Al-Bukhari
and Muslim)14.
Here
comes the role of the Muslim public opinion that is to be led by the
reputable scholars and people who call people to Islam and unbiased
intellectuals. Should it be hindered from exercising its role, its
abhorring resistance will certainly lead someday to putting an end
to those oppressive apostates; for it is not easy for the Muslim
community to lose its identity or make concessions with regard to
its beliefs and message.
French
colonialism in Algeria and Russian colonialism in Muslim majority
countries fiercely tried to uproot Muslim identity therein, although
they had no effect. Colonialism and tyranny came to an end, while
Islam and the Muslims remained. However, the war waged against Islam
on the part of some secularist rulers of some Muslim countries, as
well as some secularist Muslim immigrants, is proved to be fiercer
and more dangerous than that which colonial powers waged against
Islam and Muslims.
Hidden
Apostasy
There
is another kind of apostasy among people who do not declare their
explicit disbelief and openly wage war against everything that is
religious. Those apostates are far smarter than that. They wrap
their apostasy in various coverings, sneaking in a very cunning
manner into the mind, the same way that malignant tumors sneak into
the body. These people are not noticed when they invade or begin to
disseminate their falsehood, but they are mostly felt when they
affect the minds. They do not use guns in their attacks; however,
their attacks are fierce and cunning.
Reputable
scholars and well-versed jurists are aware of this type of
apostates, but they cannot take action in the face of such
professional criminals, who have firmly established themselves and
have not left a chance for law to be enforced on them. They are the
hypocrites whose abode will be in the lowest level of Hellfire.
This
is intellectual apostasy, whose traces are noticed everyday in
circulated newspapers and books, in radio and TV programs, and in
laws legislated to govern people's affairs. This kind of apostasy is
— at least in my point of view — more dangerous than openly
announced apostasy; for the former works continuously on a wide
scale, at the same time, it cannot be easily resisted in the same
manner as the latter, which always makes much fuss, attracts
attention, and stirs up public opinion.
Hypocrisy
is more dangerous than open disbelief. This fact will be clearly
discerned when one reflects back to the great danger which the
leader of Madinah's hypocrites, `Abdullah ibn Ubayy, posed to Islam.
The Madinah's hypocrites were more threatening to Islam than Abu
Jahl and the pagans of Makkah. It is for this that the Qur'an
specified only two verses for dispraising disbelievers at the
beginning of Surat Al-Baqarah, while hypocrites were given a share
of thirteen verses in the same surah.
Intellectual
apostasy is continuously propagated night and day. We feel its
relentless and ruthless effects on our society. It needs a
wide-scale attack at the same level of power and thought. The
positive religious obligation here is for Muslims to launch war
against such a hidden enemy; to fight it with the same weapon it
uses in waging attacks against the society. Here comes the role of
reputable scholars who are well-versed in Islamic Jurisprudence.
It
is true that the pioneers of this new form of apostasy are well
supported on the media level, but the power of truth, the faith
reposed in the hearts of believers, and Allah's support are more
than enough to vanquish this falsehood and pierce the hearts of
those who spread it with their own daggers. Here, we will feel
joyful with this Divine victory and will really understand the
following verse, [Nay, We hurl the truth against falsehood, and
it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish! Ah! Woe
be to you for the (false) things ye ascribe (to Us)] (Al-Anbiyaa'
21:18).
In
conclusion, we have nothing to say but to recite the verse that
reads, [Thus doth Allah (by parables) show forth truth and
vanity. For the scum disappears like forth cast out; while that
which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth. Thus doth
Allah set forth parables] (Ar-Ra`d 13:17).
**Sheikh
Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is a world-renowned scholar and head of the
European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and president of the
International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS). His best known books
include The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, Priorities of the
Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase, and Islamic Revivalism Between
Rejection and Extremism. Many scholars consider him to be one of the
most reputable mujtahids of the modern age. He has been active in
the field of da`wah and the Islamic movement for more than half a
century.
[1]
Title of a treatise by
the eminent scholar Abu Al-Hasan An-Nadawi.
[2] Majama`
Az-Zawa'id, vol. 6, p. 261.
[3] See the interpretation of "the fourteenth hadith" in Jami`
Al-`Ulum wa Al-Hikam. Revised by Shu`aib Al-Arna'ut. (Dar
As-Salam ed).
[4]
See Nail
Al-Awtar, vol. 8, p. 506, (Dar Al-Jil ed).
[5]
Reported by `Abdur-Raziq in his Musannaf,
vol. 10, p. 168. saying no. 18707.
[6] Ibid,
saying no. 18710.
[7] Ibn Taymiyah, As-Sarim
Al-Maslul, p. 368 (As-Sa`adah ed, verified by Muhey
Ad-Din `Abdul-Hamid).
[8] `Abdur-Raziq, Al-Musanaf,
vol. 10, pp. 165-166, saying no. 18696; Al-Baihaqi, As-Sunan,
vol. 8, p. 207; Sa`id ibn Mansur, p.3, saying no. 2573; Ibn Hazm, Al-Muhalla,
vol. 11, p. 221 (Al-Imam ed). This attitude of `Umar indicates that
he did not see the death penalty as a regular punishment for
apostasy to be applied in each case a person apostatizes from Islam;
it might be cancelled or deferred if there was a necessity for this.
The necessity in the accident quoted was the state of war and the
close distance between those apostates and the disbelievers, which
may expose the former to temptation and confusion by the latter. `Umar
might have based his judgment on holding analogy between this case
and the one in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
was reported to have said, "Hands (of thieves) are not to be
cut off during wartime;" this was for fear that the
thief whose hand would be cut might get so distressed that he would
join the enemy.
There
might be another reason for `Umar's judgment in that situation. He
might have believed that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him) said, "Whoever changes his religion, then kill
him" as a leader of the Muslim nation. In other words, it
was a decision of the executive authority and a matter of political
legislation, not a revelation from Allah. Accordingly, putting the
apostate to death is not a binding ruling to be followed in every
case. Rather, it is a decision for those in authority in the
government to take; if it orders that the apostate be executed, it
must be put into effect, and vise versa. This is similar to what the
Hanafis and Malikis derived from the hadith that reads, "He
(the soldier) who kills an enemy will take the possessions of this
enemy;" and to what the Hanafis concluded. from the hadith
that says, "He who reclaims a barren land will have
it." See my book, The
General Characteristics of Islam, p. 217.
[9]
`Abdur-Raziq, Al-Musanaf,
vol. 10, saying no. 18697.
[10]
Ibn Taimiyah, As-Sarim
Al-Maslul, p. 321.
[11] Ibn Taymiyah, As-Sarim
Al-Maslul, p. 385.
[12]
The Egyptian judiciary had praiseworthy precedents in separating
between spouses on the basis of the apostasy of one of them (having
embraced the Bahai faith). There is a verdict issued in this respect
by Judge `Ali `Ali Mansur; the verdict is published in a special
treatise and supported by a verdict issued by the State's Tribunal
on 11/7/1952. The verdict reads, "The rulings pertaining to
apostasy [in Shari`ah] must be wholly applied even though the
current penal law does not stipulate the capital punishment unto the
apostates. Let the apostate (who converted to the Bahai faith) bear
the responsibility (for his deeds) at least by annulling his
marriage, so long as there are judiciary bodies in the state that
have judicial authority by virtue of the court's direct or
collateral capacity."
[13] Al-Hanbali,
Ibn Rajab, Jami`
Al-`Ulum wa Al-Hikam, p.320.
[14] Ibn Taymiyah, As-Sarim
Al-Maslul, pp.
346-347.
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