Apostasy in Islam

Do you believe that the punishment of apostasy is death according to Islam? Quran reprimands apostasy in Islam and suggests it deserves coercion and severe punishment. There are references to punishments for committing apostasy in Islam.

Example evidence of Apostasy in Islam, according to Sunni Shafi'i school of jurisprudence (Fiqh), are:

1.      bowing before sun, moon, objects of nature, idols, cross or any images symbolically representing God whether in mere contrariness, sarcastically or with conviction;

2.      intention, hesitation or actually committing unbelief in Islam;

3.      speak words such as "Allah is part of trinity", "Jesus is the son of Allah", "I am a Prophet";

4.      revile, question, wonder, doubt, mock the Prophet was sent by Allah;

5.      revile, deny, doubt any verse of the Quran;

6.      deny that which is considered obligatory by Ijma (consensus of Muslims);

7.      believe that things in themselves have cause rather than it being the will of Allah;

8.      to pay respect to a non-Muslim.

Al-Ghazali held that apostasy occurs when a Muslim:

1.      denies, intends to deny that "there is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah";

2.      denies, doubts Quran and the Law (Sharia); and

3.      denies, doubts through action Muhammad's prophecy about the end of the world and last judgment.

Brunei is the latest Muslim country to enact a law that makes apostasy a crime punishable with death. Egypt's penal code is silent about the punishment for apostasy from Islam. Contemporary Egyptian jurisprudence prohibits apostasy from Islam, but has also remained silent about death penalty. The silence about punishment for apostasy along with constitutional enshrinement of Sharia, means death sentence for apostasy is possibility. 

15 ex-Muslim Christians were incarcerated on 15 May 2008 under charges of apostasy in Iran. National laws of Malaysia require Muslim apostates who seek to convert from Islam to another religion to first obtain approval from a sharia court. 

Article 306 of the criminal code of Mauritania declares apostasy in Islam as illegal and provides a death sentence for the crime of leaving Islam. The penal code of Morocco does not impose the death penalty for apostasy. 

While several attempts have been made to enact laws prescribing "death penalty for apostasy" in Pakistan, it has no apostasy law as of 2013. There is no law against proselytizing non-Muslims to join Islam in Qatar.

Apostasy law is actively enforced in Saudi Arabia. Two Saudi Sunni Muslim citizens were arrested and charged with apostasy for adopting the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. Apostasy is a crime in Somalia. The prescribed punishment for apostasy is the death penalty.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) protests against Islamic states that still punish Muslim apostates with death under the Sharia law. Apostasy is a crime in Yemen. 

If some Muslims insist on the death penalty for apostasy out of a concern to discourage apostasy, others do so simply because of a tendency to cling to traditional views no matter how much evidence exists against them. This attitude is un-Qur`an since the Book of God says:

When it is said to them: “Follow what God has sent down,” they say, “Nay! We shall follow what we found our fathers following.” What! Even if their fathers did not understand (ya‘qilun) anything and they were not guided? (2:170)

The Qur`an and authentic ahadith teach us to treat apostates like other kuffar, whose treatment varies from kindness to killing depending on the circumstances and on the degree of hostility they show towards Islam and Muslims. 

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. It is thus a natural conclusion to draw that the absence of any legal penalty for apostasy in the Qur`an means that God never intended any such penalty to become part of Islamic Shari‘ah.

The apostates who rejected Islam by failing to emigrate as commanded by God are divided into three categories:

1.      Those who ally themselves with a group with whom Muslims have a peace treaty;

2.      Those who want to keep neutrality, committing themselves to peace with both the Muslims and their own people who had not accepted Islam;

3.      Those who provide no real guarantee of peace to Muslims and by all indications ally themselves with non-believers engaged in hostilities towards Islam.

The Qur`an actually prohibits killing those apostates who want to live in peaceful terms with the Muslims. 

The Concept of Polygamy and the Prophets Marriages

One of the most common themes in attack against Islam is on the Prophet Muhammad’s many wives. A muslim man can marry four women, and have sexual relations with an unspecified number of slaves as well.  We wish first to discuss the concept of polygamy in Islam followed by the marriages of the Prophet.

Quran (4:3) - "Marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if you fear that you cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess." 

Marriage in Islam is a sign of God’s power and glory. Generally speaking, there are two types of marriages in Islam:

1.      Monogamy: one man married to one woman;

2.      Limited polygyny: one man married to two, three or at the most four wives.

In Islam, the ideal marriage is the monogamous form of marriage.

Quran (66:5) - "Maybe, his Lord, if he divorce you, will give him in your place wives better than you, submissive, faithful, obedient, penitent, adorers, fasters, widows and virgins" 

Islam did not invent the system of polygamy. Study the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and you will see that the Prophet was a man of highest character even long before he started preaching Islam.

Prophet Muhammad:

1.      From birth to age 25: single.

2.      From age 25 to age 50: married to one wife, Khadija.

3.      From age 50 to age 63: married ten wives.

During the last thirteen years of his life, the Prophet married ten wives. All the marriages of the Prophet, other than that with Lady Khadija, had a good political or religious rationale.

1.      Lady Sawdah bint Zam‘ah: a Muslim lady whose husband had died in Abyssinia.

2.      Lady Zaynab bint Khuzaymah: a widow for the second time when her second husband ‘Abdullah bin Jahsh was martyred in the Battle of Uhud.

3.      Lady Umm Salamah. This marriage had the element of forging the link of kinship with his opponents in Mecca.

4.      Lady Juwayriyyah bint al-Hãrith. After the Battle of Banu Mustaliq in the 5th year AH, the Muslims took two hundred families of that tribe in slavery. Juwayriyyah, the daughter of the chief of that tribe, had become a widow. The Prophet set her free and married her.

5.      Lady ‘Ãisha bint Abu Bakr. This marriage sealed the alliance with Abu Bakr so that he would be on the side of Muslims during the confrontation against the idol-worshippers of Mecca.

6.      Lady Hafsah bint ‘Umar ibn al-Khattãb. The Prophet married her in the 4th year AH. This marriage was also done to seal the Prophet’s alliance with ‘Umar.

7.      Lady Umm Habibah, daughter of Abu Sufyan. She was married to ‘Ubaydullah ibn Jahsh and had migrated to Abyssinia. He became a Christian; while she continued the Islamic faith and separated from him. Her father, Abu Sufyan, was a bitter enemy of Islam and planned battles after battles against Muslims. When she returned to Medina, the Prophet married her in order to provide protection for her and also to soften the heart of Abu Sufyan.

8.      Lady Safiyyah bint Huyaiy ibn Akhtab. She was taken as a captive by the Muslim forces. The Prophet married her in the 7th year AH to maintain her noble status and also to establish marriage ties with her Jewish tribe.

9.      Lady Maymunah bint al-Hãrith al-Hilaliyyah. She only desired the honour of being called “the wife of the Prophet”. The Prophet accepted her as his wife.

10.  Lady Zaynab bint Jahsh. She was a cousin of the Prophet; and she was a widow and a divorcee. The circumstance of her marriage to the Prophet was very unusual.

When Prophet Muhammad was young and wealthy, he had only one wife. It is a fact that even when Prophet Muhammad had these other wives, his love for his first wife, Lady Khadija, never diminished.

MISCONCEPTION ABOUT ISLAM

1. Moslems are violent, terrorists and extremists.
"If they seek peace, then seek you peace. And trust in God for He is the One that heareth and knoweth all things." (Quran 8:61).
2. Islam oppresses women. Islam gives men and women different roles and equity between the two, is laid down in the Quran and the example of the Prophet.
3. Moslems worship a different God.
Allah is exactly the same word which the Jews, in Hebrew, use for God (eloh), the word which Jesus Christ used in Aramaic when he prayed to God.
4. Islam was spread by the sword and intolerant of other faiths. Islam has always given respect and freedom of religion to all faiths, is laid down in the Quran itself: "There is no compulsion (or coercion) in the religion (Islam). The right direction is distinctly clear from error". (2:256). Islamic law also permits non-Moslem minorities to set up their own courts, which implement family laws drawn up by the minorities themselves. Racism is not a part of Islam, the Quran speaks only of human equality and how all peoples are equal in the sight of God.
5. All Moslems are Arabs. The moslem population of the world is around 1.2 billion. Only about 18% live in the Arab world and the largest moslem community is in Indonesia.
6. The Nation of Islam is a moslem group.
Islam and Nation of Islam are two different religions. Islam and Farakhanism differ in many fundamental ways. There are many groups in America who claim to represent Islam and call their adherents moslems. In fact Bahaism is not Islam just as Farrakhanism is not Islam.
7. All Moslem men marry four wives.
Permission to practice polygamy is not associated with mere satisfaction of passion.
8. Moslems are barbaric, backward people.
Among the reasons for the rapid and peaceful spread of Islam was the simplicity of its doctrine-Islam calls for faith in only one God worthy of worship.
9. Muhammad was the founder of Islam and moslems worship him.
Moslems believe all the prophets from Adam, Noah, Moses, Jesus etc. were all sent with divine guidance for their peoples.
10 Moslems don't believe in Jesus or any other prophets.
The Prophet Muhammad said: "Whoever believes there is no god but God, alone without partner, that Muhammad is His messenger, that Jesus is the servant and messenger of God, His word breathed into Mary and a spirit emanating from Him, and that Paradise and Hell are true, shall be received by God into Heaven. "(Hadith related by Bukhari).