Apostasy: to kill or not to kill?

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it with religious conviction” — Blaise Pascal.

The recent case of the Afghan convert brought the issue of ‘apostasy’ back into the limelight. The act of apostasy in Islam is when one leaves Islam for another religion, or for a non-religious lifestyle. Ridda or Irtidãd literally means “turning back”. An apostate is called ‘murtadd’, meaning “one who turns the back”. All orthodox schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhhabs) agree that a male apostate must be executed. A female apostate may be put to death according to some schools, or imprisoned, according to others. Such teachings have strengthened a misplaced perception that Islam is a symbol of obscurantism, a religion of intolerance that answers everything with the sword. Liberal scholars point out that the Quran itself does not mandate a death penalty for apostasy, but their voices are drowned by the more orthodox voices from within the Islamic community. A person cannot be forced into being a Muslim, nor should anyone be punished for abandoning the faith, according to an American Imam from the Midwest. As this is a hot issue, many Muslims are reluctant to engage in debate over it, which leaves the field wide open for Islamophobes.

To most people, the term ‘apostasy’ has a quaint, anachronistic tinge to it, evocative of religious practices from another age. Freedom to change one’s religion hardly stands as a major problem nowadays; it is a kind of ‘side effect’ of the right to freedom of thought. As Martin Scheinin points out, “States have not considered it difficult to allow their citizens the freedom to think. The difficulties start when we come to the right to express one’s conviction, the right to organise as a community in order to promote a religion or belief and the right to act in accordance with one’s conscience.”

The Quran has referred to the issue of apostasy at more than one place. But at none of these places does the Quran explicitly promulgate an earthly penalty for apostasy. Verses 3:72, 3:90, 4:48, 4:137 and 5:54 deal with apostasy directly and do not prescribe any earthly punishment or death. “Those who believe, then reject faith, then believe (again) and (again) reject faith, and go on increasing in unbelief, Allah will not forgive them nor guide them on the way” (4:137). This verse indicates that God will only withdraw His guidance after repeated rejections. It does not tell the Prophet (PBUH) to kill apostates. The Quran does mention that such people shall face a terrible punishment in the hereafter, but, it must be reiterated, no worldly punishment is mentioned.

The Quran clearly says, “There is no compulsion in the religion” (2:256). What this verse actually means is, “There is no compulsion in [accepting] the religion of Islam.” Why? The verse continues, “Surely the Right Path is clearly distinct from the crooked path.” So Muslims can always point out the difference between the right and the wrong paths, but not force non-Muslims to accept Islam. Compulsion is incompatible with religion, because religion depends entirely on faith and will, and these become meaningless when force is used.

The former Chief Justice of Pakistan, (Late) Justice S A Rahman, has written that there is no reference to the death penalty in any of the 20 instances of apostasy mentioned in the Quran. He further explained the lacunae in the hadith quoted by many to justify the slaying of an apostate.

He writes: The next tradition to be considered has several verbal variants and, in some of them, the additional words are very significant. The formulation by Abdullah b. Masud runs in these terms:

The Prophet (PBUH) said: It is not lawful to shed the blood of a person professing Islam, who testifies that there is no God but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah, except in three cases: life for life, or a married person guilty of adultery or a person who separates from his faith and deserts his community (Bukhari, “Kitab al-Diyat,” “Bab al-Nafs bi al-Nafs”). A similar version exists in Tirmidhi’s Sunan and the collection of Abu Dawud.

In the same “Kitab al-Diyat,” “Bab al Qasamah,” Bukhari records another version narrated by Abu Qulabah: “The Messenger (PBUH) did not put to death anyone by way of hadd (prescribed punishment) except for one of three antecedents: a person who commits murder of his own free will shall be killed, (so also) a person who commits fornication after marriage or a person who fights Allah and His Messenger and becomes an apostate from Islam” (Ibid., II, 1019).

A summary version is attributed to Hadrat Aishah in Sunan al-Nasa’i, in which the relevant words for the third category of persons are “one who commits apostasy, after accepting Islam.” A fuller version is, however, also contained in Nasa’i’s Sunan, which brings out the element of hostility to the community on the part of the apostate (Sunan al-Nasa’i II, 161, 236). An alternative detailed version is assigned to Hadrat Aishah by Abu Dawud (“Kitab al-Hudud,” “Bab al-Hukm fi man Artaddah” — Sunan Abu Dawud, IV, 180). Therein the third category is defined as comprising a person “muhãriban bi’llãh wa Rasulahu fa innahu yuqtal au yuslab au yunfa,” i.e. “who fights Allah and His Messenger (PBUH) and he will be killed or crucified or banished from the land” — words reminiscent of verse 33 of Surah al-Ma’idah (Justice S A Rahman: Punishment of Apostasy in Islam, pages 73-74).

With Islam being a universal religion of tolerance, the ruling of a death penalty for an apostate gives only one message: those who convert to Islam enter through a door with no way out. Is this what Islam stands for? The death penalty for apostasy has presented Islam as a primitive and murderous religion. Islam-bashers have time and again tried to carry the point that Islam orders the killing of a Muslim if he or she converts to another religion.

Religious belief is a personal matter. “And had your Lord willed, whoever in the earth would have believed all together, will you then coerce people to become believers?” (10:99). According to this verse, as interpreted by many, God does not coerce people to become Muslims or even remain Muslims once they have accepted Islam. Thus Muslims must condemn the ‘law’ of apostasy and save Muslims from becoming intolerant and violent through the heinous indoctrination of the fanatics amongst us.

Many scholars in the last century or so have analysed the ahadith on apostasy and have shown with forceful arguments that the punishment for apostasy is not applicable in every case: that it was only specific to a certain timeframe when Islam was struggling to flourish and prosper and the Jews were conspiring against it. However, due to absence of Ijtihaad (consensus) in today’s time, it seems almost impossible to re-evaluate and analyse most of the established rulings that were decided 1,000 plus years ago. Ijtihaad is the key feature for a progressive interpretation of Islam and I am optimistic that it will be resurrected soon and adapt the centuries old jurisdiction and rulings with an enlightened understanding of Islam.