04-22-2006, 05:43 PM
Hidden Apostasy
There is another kind of apostasy among people who do not declare their explicit disbelief and openly wage war against everything that is religious. Those apostates are far smarter than that. They wrap their apostasy in various coverings, sneaking in a very cunning manner into the mind, the same way that malignant tumors sneak into the body. These people are not noticed when they invade or begin to disseminate their falsehood, but they are mostly felt when they affect the minds. They do not use guns in their attacks; however, their attacks are fierce and cunning.
Reputable scholars and well-versed jurists are aware of this type of apostates, but they cannot take action in the face of such professional criminals, who have firmly established themselves and have not left a chance for law to be enforced on them. They are the hypocrites whose abode will be in the lowest level of Hellfire.
This is intellectual apostasy, whose traces are noticed everyday in circulated newspapers and books, in radio and TV programs, and in laws legislated to govern people's affairs. This kind of apostasy is — at least in my point of view — more dangerous than openly announced apostasy; for the former works continuously on a wide scale, at the same time, it cannot be easily resisted in the same manner as the latter, which always makes much fuss, attracts attention, and stirs up public opinion.
Hypocrisy is more dangerous than open disbelief. This fact will be clearly discerned when one reflects back to the great danger which the leader of Madinah's hypocrites, `Abdullah ibn Ubayy, posed to Islam. The Madinah's hypocrites were more threatening to Islam than Abu Jahl and the pagans of Makkah. It is for this that the Qur'an specified only two verses for dispraising disbelievers at the beginning of Surat Al-Baqarah, while hypocrites were given a share of thirteen verses in the same surah.
Intellectual apostasy is continuously propagated night and day. We feel its relentless and ruthless effects on our society. It needs a wide-scale attack at the same level of power and thought. The positive religious obligation here is for Muslims to launch war against such a hidden enemy; to fight it with the same weapon it uses in waging attacks against the society. Here comes the role of reputable scholars who are well-versed in Islamic Jurisprudence.
It is true that the pioneers of this new form of apostasy are well supported on the media level, but the power of truth, the faith reposed in the hearts of believers, and Allah's support are more than enough to vanquish this falsehood and pierce the hearts of those who spread it with their own daggers. Here, we will feel joyful with this Divine victory and will really understand the following verse, [Nay, We hurl the truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish! Ah! Woe be to you for the (false) things ye ascribe (to Us)] (Al-Anbiyaa' 21:18).
In conclusion, we have nothing to say but to recite the verse that reads, [Thus doth Allah (by parables) show forth truth and vanity. For the scum disappears like forth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth. Thus doth Allah set forth parables] (Ar-Ra`d 13:17).
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**Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is a world-renowned scholar and head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS). His best known books include The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase, and Islamic Revivalism Between Rejection and Extremism. Many scholars consider him to be one of the most reputable mujtahids of the modern age. He has been active in the field of da`wah and the Islamic movement for more than half a century.
[1] Title of a treatise by the eminent scholar Abu Al-Hasan An-Nadawi.
[2] Majama` Az-Zawa'id, vol. 6, p. 261.
[3] See the interpretation of "the fourteenth hadith" in Jami` Al-`Ulum wa Al-Hikam. Revised by Shu`aib Al-Arna'ut. (Dar As-Salam ed).
[4] See Nail Al-Awtar, vol. 8, p. 506, (Dar Al-Jil ed).
[5] Reported by `Abdur-Raziq in his Musannaf, vol. 10, p. 168. saying no. 18707.
[6] Ibid, saying no. 18710.
[7] Ibn Taymiyah, As-Sarim Al-Maslul, p. 368 (As-Sa`adah ed, verified by Muhey Ad-Din `Abdul-Hamid).
[8] `Abdur-Raziq, Al-Musanaf, vol. 10, pp. 165-166, saying no. 18696; Al-Baihaqi, As-Sunan, vol. 8, p. 207; Sa`id ibn Mansur, p.3, saying no. 2573; Ibn Hazm, Al-Muhalla, vol. 11, p. 221 (Al-Imam ed). This attitude of `Umar indicates that he did not see the death penalty as a regular punishment for apostasy to be applied in each case a person apostatizes from Islam; it might be cancelled or deferred if there was a necessity for this. The necessity in the accident quoted was the state of war and the close distance between those apostates and the disbelievers, which may expose the former to temptation and confusion by the latter. `Umar might have based his judgment on holding analogy between this case and the one in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was reported to have said, "Hands (of thieves) are not to be cut off during wartime;" this was for fear that the thief whose hand would be cut might get so distressed that he would join the enemy.
There might be another reason for `Umar's judgment in that situation. He might have believed that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Whoever changes his religion, then kill him" as a leader of the Muslim nation. In other words, it was a decision of the executive authority and a matter of political legislation, not a revelation from Allah. Accordingly, putting the apostate to death is not a binding ruling to be followed in every case. Rather, it is a decision for those in authority in the government to take; if it orders that the apostate be executed, it must be put into effect, and vise versa. This is similar to what the Hanafis and Malikis derived from the hadith that reads, "He (the soldier) who kills an enemy will take the possessions of this enemy;" and to what the Hanafis concluded. from the hadith that says, "He who reclaims a barren land will have it." See my book, The General Characteristics of Islam, p. 217.
[9] `Abdur-Raziq, Al-Musanaf, vol. 10, saying no. 18697.
[10] Ibn Taimiyah, As-Sarim Al-Maslul, p. 321.
[11] Ibn Taymiyah, As-Sarim Al-Maslul, p. 385.
[12] The Egyptian judiciary had praiseworthy precedents in separating between spouses on the basis of the apostasy of one of them (having embraced the Bahai faith). There is a verdict issued in this respect by Judge `Ali `Ali Mansur; the verdict is published in a special treatise and supported by a verdict issued by the State's Tribunal on 11/7/1952. The verdict reads, "The rulings pertaining to apostasy [in Shari`ah] must be wholly applied even though the current penal law does not stipulate the capital punishment unto the apostates. Let the apostate (who converted to the Bahai faith) bear the responsibility (for his deeds) at least by annulling his marriage, so long as there are judiciary bodies in the state that have judicial authority by virtue of the court's direct or collateral capacity."
[13] Al-Hanbali, Ibn Rajab, Jami` Al-`Ulum wa Al-Hikam, p.320.
[14] Ibn Taymiyah, As-Sarim Al-Maslul, pp. 346-347.