Concept of Apostasy Under Islamic Law
1- The Shariah ruling on apostasy is that an apostate is guilty of a treasonable felony and thereby receives a death sentence. He should however be given a respite to repent first, before he could be executed. If he does, then he is welcome back honourably into the fold of Islam. (Some of the hadiths on this ruling could be found in Sahih Bukhari, the Book of Diyyaat (no 6878) & the Book of Jihad (no 3017) )
2- I have deliberately used modern legal terms like, 'treasonable felony' 'death sentence' etc to allow for an unbiased evaluation of the Shariah's stance on this issue.
3- In Islam, there is no compulsion or coercion to embrace its faith, and that's why it has been so stated categorically in Surat Al Baqarah (2): 256. However, no state or authority would take anything capable of uprooting its existence with levity; hence any attempt of such even in the secular laws always attracts death penalty. The Shariah view of apostasy is that of treason, and this could be better understood and appreciated when you recite Surat Al-Imran: 72, where Alla Taala uncovered apostasy as not just an exercise of one's freedom (as popularly claimed) but a calculated plot to undermine and subvert the nation of Islam. The Jews in those days actually devised that ploy by telling some of their followers to go and declare their acceptance of Islam only to come back after a while to renounce it and announce to people that they have detected it was such a bad faith! Here is the Qur'anic account of their plot: "And a faction of the People of the Scripture say (to each other) 'Believe in that which was revealed to the believers at the beginning of the day, but reject it at its end, that perhaps they will return (abandon their religion) ". The last sentence leaves no one in doubt of the true motive for this Satanic plot.
4- Proofs and evidences still abound even today in our environment. Have we forgotten the likes of AKEWU GBA JESU in Yorubaland? Up till this moment there
2- I have deliberately used modern legal terms like, 'treasonable felony' 'death sentence' etc to allow for an unbiased evaluation of the Shariah's stance on this issue.
3- In Islam, there is no compulsion or coercion to embrace its faith, and that's why it has been so stated categorically in Surat Al Baqarah (2): 256. However, no state or authority would take anything capable of uprooting its existence with levity; hence any attempt of such even in the secular laws always attracts death penalty. The Shariah view of apostasy is that of treason, and this could be better understood and appreciated when you recite Surat Al-Imran: 72, where Alla Taala uncovered apostasy as not just an exercise of one's freedom (as popularly claimed) but a calculated plot to undermine and subvert the nation of Islam. The Jews in those days actually devised that ploy by telling some of their followers to go and declare their acceptance of Islam only to come back after a while to renounce it and announce to people that they have detected it was such a bad faith! Here is the Qur'anic account of their plot: "And a faction of the People of the Scripture say (to each other) 'Believe in that which was revealed to the believers at the beginning of the day, but reject it at its end, that perhaps they will return (abandon their religion) ". The last sentence leaves no one in doubt of the true motive for this Satanic plot.
4- Proofs and evidences still abound even today in our environment. Have we forgotten the likes of AKEWU GBA JESU in Yorubaland? Up till this moment there