Apostasy In Islam

There has been a lot of talk by critiques of Islam on the rule of Apostasy in Islam which has been fueled by fatwa’s given out by some Islamic scholars on the matter. This topic has always featured in discussions by those interested by religious matters especially in the Arab world and generally in the Islamic world.
In order to deal with this issue we need first to discuss it from two different concepts and levels and we also need to differentiate between those two levels in order to avoid confusion and ambiguity. Those two levels are the general and the personal.

The first level refers to the general concept in Islam of freedom of belief which is made clear in the following verses from the Quran:

- And if thy Lord willed, all who are in the earth would have believed together. Wouldst thou (Muhammad) compel men until they are believers? (Sura 10 verse 99)

- If then they turn away, We have not sent thee as a guard over them. Thy duty is but to convey (the Message)… (sura 42 verse 48)

- Thou art not one to manage (men's) affairs. But if any turn away and rejects Allah― Allah will punish him with a mighty Punishment. For to Us will be their Return; Then it will be for Us to call them to account. (Sura 88 verses 22-26)

- Say "The Truth is from your Lord": let him who will, believe, and let him who will, reject.. (Sura 18 verse 29)

- We showed him the Way: whether he be grateful or ungrateful (rests on his will). (sura 76 verse 3)

- Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from Error; whoever rejects Evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah hearth and knoweth all things. (Sura 2 verse 256).

It is obvious that these verses give people the freedom of belief. A person is free to believe in Islam or not to believe and the prophet (pbuh) was not given the right to force those who reject Islam back into believing neither to force people to believe in Islam.
A lot of fuqaha’a (Islamic jurists) would say that these verses are “copied” and are a response to “the verses of the sword” however both these concepts do not exist in the Holy Quran. Nevertheless, the verses that are referred to as “copied” are the ones that have been passed down from past Abrahamic prophets and their teachings either through the concepts of those teachings or their meanings have been compiled together with the arrival of the prophet Mohammad peace be upon him. On the other hand the so-called “verses of the sword”; there is no such verses however there are verses that permit or allow the fighting of non-believers of Mecca whom the Muslims were at war with. The Muslims at the time and under the threat of liquidation through killing by the non-believers of Mecca, and after they have been persecuted and evicted from their homes (amongst them the prophet pbuh) fought the non-believers of Mecca in self defense and nothing else, it is worth noting that this war was empty from the spirit of revenge by the Muslims. It is known that the prophet accepted the Treaty of Hudaybiyah when the Meccans intercepted the muslims attempt to enter Mecca, and it is also known that the Muslims entered Mecca later on through negotiations that were preempted by the prophet through his marriage of Abu Sufyan’s (the leader of the non-believers of the Quraish) daughter Um Habiba and were carried out (the negotiations) by Mohammad’s (pbuh) uncle Al-Abbas. When the muslims entered Mecca he order a person to call out and let everyone know that “whoever enters the house of Abu Sufyan is safe, and whoever closes the door is safe, and whoever enters the mosque is safe.”

In regards to apostasy from Islam to another belief this falls into the second level, the personal level from the perspective of the “freedom of belief” as was mentioned earlier. Within this personal level there are two levels, the personal and the personal-personal.

Here the personal level is referred to in the following verses of the Quran:

- Anyone who, after accepting faith in Allah, utters unbelief― except under compulsion, his heart remaining firm in Faith― but such as open their breast to unbelief― on them is Wrath from Allah, and theirs will be a dreadful Penalty. (Sura 16 Verse 106)

- 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. (Sura 2 verse 217)

- As for those who sell the faith they owe to Allah and their own solemn plighted word for a small price, they shall have no portion in the Hereafter: nor will Allah (deign to) speak to them or look at them on the Day of Judgment, nor will He cleanse them (of sin); they shall have a grievous penalty. (sura 3 verse 77)

- How shall Allah guide those who reject Faith after they accepted it and bore witness that the Messenger was true and that clear signs had come unto them? But Allah guides not a people unjust. (86) Of such the reward is that on them (rests) the curse of Allah, of His angels, and of all mankind. (sura 3 verse 86-87)

- If anyone contends with the Messenger even after guidance has been plainly conveyed to him, and follows a path other than that becoming to men to Faith, We shall leave him in the path he has chosen, and land him in Hell,-what an evil refuge! (sura 4 verse 115)

- 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. (sura 4 verse 137)

In all the verses mentioned above the punishment of the person who apostates from Islam is not death but rather it is God’s wrath, curse, hell; in other words it is God who punishes those who apostate from the religion and not other humans. This is what we find in the Quran, however Islamic jurists say that the punishment of those who apostate from the religion of Islam is death and base this judgment on a hadith (prophets saying) which says “whoever changes their religion, kill them”. So how can this difference be explained?

Without getting into the debate as to whether the for mentioned hadith is correct or not, fighting those who apostate from islam has occurred at the time of the first caliph Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with him, and it is a historical fact. However, it is important to separate or differentiate between those who change their religion for personal reasons without having any other motives and under their personal convictions and judgment, and between those who apostate for external motives. This is what is meant by the concept of ‘personal-personal’. That is, the apostates that Abu Bakr (ra) fought as the ‘head of state’ were not only people who changed their beliefs due to personal convictions, but were people who rebelled against the state and organized themselves to fight that state lead by Abu Bakr. Therefore the apostate in this sense are those who went out and attacked the state, whether it is an Islamic state or not, in any form possible whether they actively fought or conspired against the state.

Thus the Islamic arbitration of apostasy in this meaning is not one against the freedom of belief, but against those who betray the state, nation, homeland or country and is against those who collude with the enemy of the state. From this we can understand how Islamic jurists linked the concepts of a ‘fighter’ (a person who goes against the state and society and fights against it in any means for example as a bandit) and between an ‘apostate’; thus an apostate in this sense is a form of ‘fighter’ (bandit) and the arbitration of Islamic jurists in this case will vary between different jurists depending on the extent as to whether the apostate is a ‘fighter’ or not. With the agreement of Islamic jurists, a ‘fighter apostate’ is to have capital punishment; Islamic jurists have been at a disagreement in regards to the punishment an apostate receives if they only apostate and not fight the state. This just shows how that Islamic jurists have considered the case of apostasy not as something linked to freedom of belief but as something linked to a person who is fighting against the rule of the state and against society.

To conclude, the Islamic law in regards to apostasy is not related to freedom of belief but is linked to, what we call today treason. Likewise those who speak about Human rights, of which the freedom of belief is at its forefront, do not defend or do not have a belief of “freedom of treason” or “freedom of being a bandit” or “freedom of colluding with the enemy of a state”, therefore it is clear that Freedom is something and apostasy is something else.

What needs to be worked on however, is whether a Muslim, who apostates without causing trouble to the state or society, is considered as a ‘fighter apostate’ and deserves capital punishment?! It is obvious that in such case the evidence from the Holy Quran (being the highest authority in Islam) states that an apostate will be punished by God almighty and not by other humans as the earlier stated verses show and those who are arguing that an apostate deserves to be killed do not really have any bases for their argument. And God knows best.