Islam and Apostasy: Difference between revisions

==Historical Context==

Islamic law draws heavily on the desert tribal norms that characterized its birthplace in 7th century Arabia. In this context, as in much of the ancient world, religion was a primarily communal rather than personal affair - commitment to the belief system of one's people was at the same time the basis of one's membership among those people. To abandon one's religion was to renounce not only a system of belief, but also (in the absence of strong secular notions of nationhood) the the society or community that was founded upon that belief. Thus, the norm in Arabia at the birth of Islam was to view apostasy as tantamount to a form of treason and renunciation of one's belonging to one's community. This did not, however, merit execution in all cases. After all, Muhammad himself was allowed to live in [[Mecca]] despite abandoning the 'religion of his forefathers', even if he was made to face some amount of persecution. Once Muhammad's movement of military conquest based out of Medina began, however, his group of believers was in a constant state of war with his neighbors. Since Muhammad cemented rather than overturned most of the contemporary tribal norms, this meant that apostasy at any point amounted to treason during a state of war, and thus merited execution. Islamic scholars, drawing on Muhammad's life, took these norms and turned them into the perennial dictates of Islamic law. Even among classical scholars born hundreds of years after Muhammad, the Islamic [[Khilafah (Caliphate)|caliphate]] was held to be in what was essentially a perpetual state of conquest, based on the [[Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam (the Abodes of War and Peace)|Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam (the Abode of War and the Abode of Peace)]] dichotomy, perpetuating the justification of this ruling. Since Islamic law is unchanging, however, and since a collapse of the Islamic state was not anticipated, the overwhelming majority of traditional Islamic scholars today continue to hold execution as the proper punishment for apostasy. Today, the punishment for apostasy is execution in 11 Muslim-majority countries and is outlawed and otherwise punishable in many, many more.<ref>https://persecution.exmuslims.org/map</ref>

==In Islamic law and scripture==

Islamic jurisprudence is derived from the reported words of Muhammad, especially as interpreted and implemented by the ''Rashidun'' ("rightly guided") Caliphs and his other companions.

{{Main|l1=[https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Apostasy#Fiqh Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars: Apostasy#Fiqh]}}Imam Abu Hanifa’s prescription, as found in his student al-Shaybani's ''Kitab al-Siyar'', grants the apostate a period of three days to revert back to Islam before facing the death penalty. All four schools of [[Sunni]] [[Fiqh|jurisprudence]] are in agreement with this ruling, with only slight variations on whether and how the grace period and punishment are to be applied to females.<ref name="Maududi2" /> The Hanafi school of jurisprudence, the most popular school of jurisprudence in the world today, holds that female apostates form an exception to the rule and, rather than being killed, ought to be beaten every three days and put under confinement until death or repentance, while the remaining Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools all agree the verdict for the female apostate is the same as for the male.<ref>'Abdurrahmani'l-Djaziri - [http://www.light-of-life.com/eng/ilaw/l5721et1.htm#p19 The Penalties for Apostasy in Islam According to the Four Schools of Islamic Law] - "The Case of the Female Apostate" (Pg. 19)</ref> In [[Shi'ism|Shia]] Islam, according to the Ja'fari school, the male is to be executed, but females imprisoned and beaten at the times of the [[Salah|daily prayers (salah)]].<ref name="PetersDeVries2">Peters, R.and G.J.J.De Vries (1976-77), 'Apostasy in Islam'. Die Welt des Islams 17, 1/4:1-25 [dare.uva.nl/document/228850 pdf of the article] or [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1570336?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents jstor article with free read access]</ref> All four schools also hold that the apostate must be: performing an act of free will, of adult age (beyond the puberty, in Islamic law), is of sound mind, and acting intentionally.<ref name="PetersDeVries2" /> It is important to note that the Islamic ruling on apostasy only applies to apostates from Islam, not to those who apostatize from other religions, and especially not to those who apostatize from other religions in order to convert to Islam, as this final act is considered to be highly meritorious.