04-22-2006, 05:41 PM
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