Hadiths relating to the issue of apostasy

بسمه تعالى

Does apostasy carry a mandatory death penalty in the Sharia? Below is a brief exploration of the authentic hadiths on the topic, which are mentioned in Jamal al-Banna's refutation of the claim that there is in Islam a prescribed punishment (تفنيد دعوى حد الردة). Proceeding beyond al-Banna's cogent argument, it appears that there a good linguistic reasons to conclude for that some of the hadiths traditionally presented as evidence in favour of such a penalty for apostasy ought more logically to be applied to those violent extremists who to this day are the most frequent in demanding the execution of apostates, be they real or supposed. 

This first hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari (93/71) shows the approach of the Prophet (PBUH) towards those who openly chose to leave the fold of Islam as a matter of simple belief not accompanied by any universally recognised criminal behaviour:

حدثنا عبد الله بن يوسف، أخبرنا مالك، عن محمد بن المنكدر، عن جابر بن عبد الله: أن أعرابيا بايع رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم على الإسلام، فأصاب الأعرابي وعك بالمدينة، فأتى الأعرابي إلى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، فقال: يا رسول الله، أقلني بيعتي، فأبى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، ثم جاءه فقال: أقلني بيعتي، فأبى، ثم جاءه فقال: أقلني بيعتي، فأبى، فخرج الأعرابي، فقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: «إنما المدينة كالكير، تنفي خبثها، وينصع طيبها

[Narrated] from Jabir ibn Abd Allah that a Bedouin pledged allegiance to Islam at the hand of God's Messenger (PBUH); then the Bedouin was struck by a fever in Medina, so he came to God's Messenger (PBUH) and said, "O Messenger of God, annul my pledge," but God's Messenger (PBUH) refused. Then he came to him [again] and said: "Annul my pledge," but he refused. Then he came to him [again] and said: "Annul my pledge," but he refused. So the Bedouin left. Then God's Messenger (PBUH) said: "Medina is just like [a blacksmith's] bellows: it expels its impurity and makes gleam its good."

Along with the Prophet's (PBUH) agreement with the terms of the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah, in which all who wished to leave Medina - and, by inference, Islam - to return to Mecca unmolested should be free to do so, the above hadith demonstrates that, in the case of a person like that Bedouin in Medina in the ten years after the Hijrah, there was no worldly penalty merely for abandoning the faith. Although the Prophet (PBUH) refused to accept or to grant an annulment of the pledge, he did not stand in the way of someone who was determined to break his promise. 

The next, very long hadith, also from Sahih al-Bukhari (87/38), raises a number of interesting questions on criminal and penal law in the Sharia, with the specific references to apostasy highlighted in bold:

حدثنا قتيبة بن سعيد، حدثنا أبو بشر إسماعيل بن إبراهيم الأسدي: حدثنا الحجاج بن أبي عثمان، حدثني أبو رجاء، من آل أبي قلابة: حدثني أبو قلابة: أن عمر بن عبد العزيز أبرز سريره يوما للناس، ثم أذن لهم فدخلوا، فقال: ما تقولون في القسامة؟ قال: نقول: القسامة القود بها حق، وقد أقادت بها الخلفاء. قال لي: ما تقول يا أبا قلابة؟ ونصبني للناس، فقلت: يا أمير المؤمنين، عندك رءوس الأجناد وأشراف العرب، أرأيت لو أن خمسين منهم شهدوا على رجل محصن بدمشق أنه قد زنى، لم يروه، أكنت ترجمه؟ قال: لا. قلت: أرأيت لو أن خمسين منهم شهدوا على رجل بحمص أنه سرق، أكنت تقطعه ولم يروه؟ قال: لا، قلت: فوالله ما قتل رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أحدا قط إلا في إحدى ثلاث خصال: رجل قتل بجريرة نفسه فقتل، أو رجل زنى بعد إحصان، أو رجل حارب الله ورسوله، وارتد عن الإسلام. فقال القوم: أوليس قد حدث أنس بن مالك: أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قطع في السرق، وسمر الأعين، ثم نبذهم في الشمس؟ فقلت: أنا أحدثكم حديث أنس: حدثني أنس: أن نفرا من عكل ثمانية، قدموا على رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فبايعوه على الإسلام، فاستوخموا الأرض فسقمت أجسامهم، فشكوا ذلك إلى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، قال: أفلا تخرجون مع راعينا في إبله، فتصيبون من ألبانها وأبوالها. قالوا: بلى، فخرجوا فشربوا من ألبانها وأبوالها، فصحوا، فقتلوا راعي رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وأطردوا النعم، فبلغ ذلك رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فأرسل في آثارهم، فأدركوا فجيء بهم، فأمر بهم فقطعت أيديهم وأرجلهم، وسمر أعينهم، ثم نبذهم في الشمس حتى ماتوا، قلت: وأي شيء أشد مما صنع هؤلاء؟ ارتدوا عن الإسلام، وقتلوا وسرقوا. فقال عنبسة بن سعيد: والله إن سمعت كاليوم قط، فقلت: أترد علي حديثي يا عنبسة؟ قال: لا، ولكن جئت بالحديث على وجهه، والله لا يزال هذا الجند بخير ما عاش هذا الشيخ بين أظهرهم، قلت: وقد كان في هذا سنة من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، دخل عليه نفر من الأنصار، فتحدثوا عنده، فخرج رجل منهم بين أيديهم فقتل، فخرجوا بعده، فإذا هم بصاحبهم يتشحط في الدم، فرجعوا إلى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فقالوا: يا رسول الله، صاحبنا كان تحدث معنا، فخرج بين أيدينا، فإذا نحن به يتشحط في الدم، فخرج رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فقال: بمن تظنون، أو من ترون، قتله؟ قالوا: نرى أن اليهود قتلته، فأرسل إلى اليهود فدعاهم، فقال: آنتم قتلتم هذا؟ قالوا: لا، قال: أترضون نفل خمسين من اليهود ما قتلوه؟ فقالوا: ما يبالون أن يقتلونا أجمعين، ثم ينتفلون، قال: أفتستحقون الدية بأيمان خمسين منكم؟ قالوا: ما كنا لنحلف، فوداه من عنده
قلت: وقد كانت هذيل خلعوا خليعا لهم في الجاهلية، فطرق أهل بيت من اليمن بالبطحاء، فانتبه له رجل منهم، فحذفه بالسيف فقتله، فجاءت هذيل، فأخذوا اليماني فرفعوه إلى عمر بالموسم، وقالوا: قتل صاحبنا، فقال: إنهم قد خلعوه، فقال: يقسم خمسون من هذيل ما خلعوه، قال: فأقسم منهم تسعة وأربعون رجلا، وقدم رجل منهم من الشأم، فسألوه أن يقسم، فافتدى يمينه منهم بألف درهم، فأدخلوا مكانه رجلا آخر، فدفعه إلى أخي المقتول، فقرنت يده بيده، قالوا: فانطلقا والخمسون الذين أقسموا، حتى إذا كانوا بنخلة، أخذتهم السماء، فدخلوا في غار في الجبل، فانهجم الغار على الخمسين الذين أقسموا فماتوا جميعا، وأفلت القرينان، واتبعهما حجر فكسر رجل أخي المقتول، فعاش حولا ثم مات، قلت: وقد كان عبد الملك بن مروان أقاد رجلا بالقسامة، ثم ندم بعد ما صنع، فأمر بالخمسين الذين أقسموا، فمحوا من الديوان، وسيرهم إلى الشأم

Abu Qilabah told me that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz opened up his throne [room] to the people one day, inviting them to enter, and saying: "What do you say about [the practice of] swearing on oath?" [Someone] said: "We say that, regarding swearing on oath, [issuing rulings of] retaliation on the basis of it is right, as the caliphs issued [rulings of] retaliation based on it." [Umar] said to me: "What do you say, O Abu Qilabah? Help me advise the people." So I said: "O Commander of the Faithful, you have with you the leaders of the army and the noblest of the Arabs. Suppose that fifty of them testified against a married man in Damascus, that he had committed adultery, even though they had not seen him, would you have him stoned?" [Umar] said: "No!" I said: "Suppose that fifty of them testified against a married man in Homs, that he had stolen, would you have him amputated, even though they had not seen him?" He said: "No!" I said: "By God, God's Messenger (PBUH) never killed anyone except for one of three reasons: a man who killed on purpose, so was [in turn] killed; or a man who fornicated after getting married; or a man who waged war on God and His Messenger and reverted from Islam [to disbelief]." So the people said: "Did not Malik ibn Anas relate that God's Messenger (PBUH) amputated in the case of theft, plucked out eyes, then left them in the sun [to die]?" So I said: "I will relate to you the hadith of Anas. Anas told me that eight people of the 'Ukl tribe approached God's Messenger (PBUH) and pledged allegiance to Islam at his hand. The land became unhealthy, and their bodies fell sick; so they complained about that to God's Messenger (PBUH), who said: 'Will you not accompany our herdsman with the camels, taking of their milk and urine?' They said: 'Of course!' So they went off, drank their milk and urine, and were restored to health. Then they killed the herdsman of God's Messenger (PBUH) and made off with the livestock. That [news] reached God's Messenger (PBUH), so he sent [men] to follow their trail, and they were caught, brought back, and an order given regarding them. Their hands and feet were cut off, their eyes plucked out, then they were left in the sun to die." I said: "What thing could be more severe than what these [people] did? They reverted from Islam, killed and stole." Then 'Anbasah ibn Sa'id said: "By God, I never before heard [it] like today." So I said: "Do you reject my hadith, O 'Anbasah?" He said: "No, but you have reproduced the hadith as it should be. By God, this army will remain sound so long as this sheikh lives among them." I said: "In this there was a tradition (sunnah) of God's Messenger (PBUH). Some of the Ansar entered upon him, and they discussed in his presence; then a man among them went out in front of them and was killed. They came out after him, and there they were with their companion left lying in [a pool of] blood. So they returned to God's Messenger (PBUH) and said: "O Messenger of God, our companion was talking with us and went out before us, and there we [found] him, left lying in [his] blood." So God's Messenger (PBUH) went out and said: "Whom do you suspect, or who do you think killed him?" They said: "We think the Jews killed him." So he sent for the Jews and bid them come, then said: "Did you kill this [man]?"  They said: "No!"  He said [to the Ansar]: "Are you content to call on fifty Jews [to swear on oath] they did not kill him?" They said: "They wouldn't mind killing us all and then swearing on oath [to the contrary]." He said: "Do you merit compensation on the strength of the oath of fifty of you [that the Jews killed him]?" They said: "We were not ready to swear [it]." So [the Prophet] paid the compensation.
I said: "The Hudhayl tribe had outlawed a miscreant amongst them during the Jahiliyah. He set out to do harm to a family from Yemen at al-Batha'. A man amongst them noticed him and knocked him down with a sword, killing him. Then the tribe of Hudhayl came, took the Yemeni man, and brought him before Umar during the [Hajj] season, saying: 'He killed our companion.' He said: 'They had outlawed him.' So [Umar] said: 'Let fifty of Hudhayl swear they had not outlawed him.' Forty-nine of their men swore. [Another] man of theirs approached from Syria, and they asked him to swear; but, instead of giving his oath, he paid out a thousand dirhams. So they had another man take his place, [while] he paid [the money] to the brother of the victim, and he shook his hand. They said: 'The two of them set off, and the fifty who had sworn on oath, until they came to Nakhlah, [where rain from] the heavens caught them; so they entered a cave in the mountain, and the cave fell in on the fifty who had sworn, and they all died. [Only] the two who had shaken hands escaped; but a rock tumbled after them, breaking the leg of the victim's brother, who survived a year and then died.'"
I said: "[The caliph] Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan had a man sentenced on the strength of oaths, but later regretted what he had done. So he ordered that the fifty who had swore [be produced], then they struck them off the register, and he banished them to Syria."

In the above authentic tradition, it is clear that the apostasy that is linked to such universally recognised crimes as murder, robbery and theft is punishable. It is interesting to note that the words of the Prophet (PBUH) himself in the hadith put "waging war on God and His Messenger" before reverting from Islam back to disbelief, whereas Abu Qilabah, in commenting on it, reverses the order. Why is this? Is it that, during the lifetime of the Prophet (PBUH), committing major sins was seen as de facto apostasy whereas almost a century later, during the caliphate of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, the mere renouncing one's faith was considered such a heinous crime against society and the state (most of whose citizens were not Muslim) that it surpassed even murder in the public imagination?

The punishment mentioned by Anas ibn Malik, the narrator of the above hadith in relation to the highwaymen of the tribe of 'Ukl is found in the Qur'an (5:33):

{إنما جزاء الذين يحاربون الله ورسوله ويسعون في الأرض فسادًا أن يُقتّلوا أو يصلّبوا أو تقطّع أيديهم وأرجلهم من خلاف أو يُنفَوا من الأرض : ذلك لهم خزي في الدنيا، ولهم في الآخرة عذاب عطيم}

{The only [fitting] recompense for those who wage war on God and His Messenger and roam the land [seeking] to cause corruption is that they be put to death, or crucified, or their hands and feet chopped off from opposite sides, or that they be banished from the land. That is to disgrace them in this world; and in the Hereafter, theirs is a mighty torment.}

As those familiar with the Qur'an come naturally to expect, after mentioning the harshest of punishments, the next verse (5:34) exposes the door to repentance and forgiveness that remains open to the last:

{إلا الذين تابوا من قبل أن تقدروا عليهم، فاعلموا أن الله غفور رحيم}

{Except those who repent before you are able to arrest them: so know that God is All-forgiving, All-merciful.}

By referring to the lawfulness of convicting a person on the strength of even fifty non-eyewitness accounts, the previous hadith raises an important issue in relation to the following, also from Sahih al-Bukhari (56/226):

حدثنا علي بن عبد الله، حدثنا سفيان، عن أيوب، عن عكرمة، أن عليًا رضي الله عنه، حرق قوما، فبلغ ابن عباس فقال: لو كنت أنا لم أحرقهم لأن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: لا تعذبوا بعذاب الله، ولقتلتهم كما قال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: من بدل دينه فاقتلوه

[Narrated] from 'Ikrimah that Ali (may God be pleased with him) burned [some] people alive. [This news] reached Ibn Abbas, who said: "Had it been me, I would not have burned them, for the Prophet (PBUH) said: 'Do not torment with the torment of God'; but I would definitely have killed them as the Prophet (PBUH) said: 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him.'"

There are a number different chains of narration for this clear statement preserved in various authoritative collections of hadiths; however, on examination, they are all based on the report of a single witness, Ibn Abbas. On the strength of the evidence, of all the Companions, he - and he alone - was the only person on record to have heard these words from the mouth of the Prophet (PBUH). As such, the jurists down the ages have rightly agreed that it is insufficient on its own to establish a mandatory prescribed punishment (or Hadd حدّ). Furthermore, according to the commentaries, the reported context of the utterance again relates to violence and war, and in particular to the decision of some Jewish allies to switch sides during a battle.

So what evidence remains to support a mandatory prescribed death penalty for all apostates, regardless of any associated crime against a person or society? This fourth hadith, again from Sahih al-Bukhari (87/17), is often cited:

حدثنا عمر بن حفص، حدثنا أبي، حدثنا الأعمش، عن عبد الله بن مرة، عن مسروق، عن عبد الله، قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: لا يحل دم امرئ مسلم، يشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأني رسول الله، إلا بإحدى ثلاث: النفس بالنفس، والثيب الزاني، والمارق من الدين التارك للجماعة

[Narrated] from Abd Allah, who said: God's Messenger (PBUH) said: "[Shedding] the blood of a Muslim man who bears witness that there is no god but God, and that I am the Messenger of God, is not lawful except in one of three: a life for a life; the married fornicator; and the renegade from the religion who leaves the community."

Contrary to the hadith narrated from Ibn Abbas earlier, this one reaches the required standard of proof in terms of the number of different Companions who reported hearing it. However, as Jamal al-Banna notes in his book تفنيد دعوى حد الردة (lit. A refutation of the claim of a prescribed penalty for apostasy), while there is no doubt that it is authentic, its wording is such that the meaning is incomplete. He argues that, in order to correctly understand the hadith, as in many other instances, it is necessary to turn to that fuller version of it narrated from Aishah, as recorded in Sunan al-Nasa'i (37/83):

أخبرنا العباس بن محمد الدوري قال: حدثنا أبو عامر العقدي، عن إبراهيم بن طهمان، عن عبد العزيز بن رفيع، عن عبيد بن عمير، عن عائشة، أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: لا يحل دم امرئ مسلم إلا بإحدى ثلاث خصال: زان محصن يرجم، أو رجل قتل رجلا متعمدا فيقتل، أو رجل يخرج من الإسلام يحارب الله عز وجل ورسوله فيقتل أو يصلب أو ينفى من الأرض

[Narrated] from Aishah that God's Messenger (PBUH) said: "[Shedding] the blood of a Muslim man who bears witness that there is no god but God, and that I am the Messenger of God, is not lawful except in one of three instances: a married fornicator, who should be stoned; or a man who kills another man deliberately, who should be slain; or a man who leaves [the fold of] Islam to wage war on God (may He be extolled) and His Messenger, who should slain or crucified or exiled from the land."

Here the link to "waging war on God and His Messenger" is once again made explicit, as it was in the account of the men of the  'Ukl tribe who, having regained their health, conspired to murder the Prophet's (PBUH) herdsman and make off with the camels. To maintain that proven apostasy always carries a death sentence is untenable, Jamal al-Banna cogently argues, because it does not fit with what we know of the Prophet's (PBUH) practice either from the first hadith mentioned above or from the second of the principal terms of the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah, which today's supporters of restoring a global caliphate cite ("If anyone from the Quraysh embraced Islam and came to Muhammad (saw) without the permission of his guardian, he would return him to them, and if anyone from those with Muhammad came to the Quraysh, they need not return him to Muhammad.") but from which they fail to draw lessons. If a mandatory death penalty is prescribed for all apostates, an explanation is required for why the Prophet (PBUH) sometimes applied it and sometimes didn't.

There are, however, another possible arguments in favour of restricting the application of the death penalty to what is explicitly stated in the hadith as recorded in Sunan al-Nasa'i from Aishah. First, to hold that the words "a Muslim man who bears witness that there is no god but God, and that I am the Messenger of God" mean an apostate requires a tortured interpretation since, by definition, an apostate from Islam is bound to reject the Prophet's (PBUH) status as a messenger of God, even if he or she continues to assert a belief in the existence and oneness of God. Second, what exactly is meant by "the renegade from the religion who leaves the community", sometimes translated as 'apostate'? The Arabic word translated as 'renegade' in the phrase is maariq (مارق). To refine our understanding of the word, it helps to look at uses of the word in the context of other hadiths.

Keeping with Sahih al-Bukhari (66/82), we find the following use of the verb yamruqoon (يمرقون) in bold, of which maariq (مارق) in the hadith above is the active participle:

حدثنا محمد بن كثير، أخبرنا سفيان، حدثنا الأعمش، عن خيثمة، عن سويد بن غفلة، قال علي رضي الله عنه: سمعت النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم يقول: يأتي في آخر الزمان قوم حدثاء الأسنان، سفهاء الأحلام، يقولون من خير قول البرية، يمرقون من الإسلام كما يمرق السهم من الرمية، لا يجاوز إيمانهم حناجرهم، فأينما لقيتموهم فاقتلوهم، فإن قتلهم أجر لمن قتلهم يوم القيامة

[Narrated] from Suwayd ibn Ghaflah that Ali (may God be pleased with him) said: "I heard the Prophet (PBUH) say: 'There will come at the end of time a people young of tooth, foolish regarding their ideas; they will talk the talk of the best of mankind, passing through Islam as an arrow passes through prey. Their faith will not pass beyond their throats [to their hearts]. So, wherever you find them, slay them; for slaying them [carries] a reward on the Day of Resurrection for whoever slays them.'"

If one were to choose a single word in English to convey the meaning of the Prophet's (PBUH) description of those who pass through the religion of Islam, the most obvious choice would be "extremist". By comparing this with the earlier hadith, we again find no difficulty in applying the term "extremist" to "a Muslim man who bears witness that there is no god but God, and that I am the Messenger of God."

There are numerous other hadiths of this kind, for example, in Sahih Muslim (12/207):

حدثنا أبو بكر بن أبي شيبة، حدثنا علي بن مسهر، عن الشيباني، عن يسير بن عمرو، قال: سألت سهل بن حنيف، هل سمعت النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم يذكر الخوارج، فقال: سمعته وأشار بيده نحو المشرق: قوم يقرءون القرآن بألسنتهم لا يعدو تراقيهم يمرقون من الدين، كما يمرق السهم من الرمية

[Narrated] from Yasir ibn 'Amr, who said: I asked Sahl ibn Hanif: "Did you hear the Prophet (PBUH) mention the Kharawij [i.e. rebels]?" So he said: "I heard him [describe them as] (and he pointed towards the East with his hand): 'A people who recite the Qur'an with their tongues, [but] it does not go beyond their throats, they pass through the religion as an arrow passes through prey.'"

Or again from Sahih Muslim (12/195), using the root word twice while clearly associating it with Muslims, not apostates:

حدثنا شيبان بن فروخ، حدثنا القاسم وهو ابن الفضل الحداني، حدثنا أبو نضرة، عن أبي سعيد الخدري، قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: تمرق مارقة عند فرقة من المسلمين، يقتلها أولى الطائفتين بالحق

[Narrated] from Abu Sa'id al-Hudhri, who said: "God's Messenger (PBUH) said: 'A group of renegades will secede when there is disunity among the Muslims; and the first of the two groups will justly slay them.'"

Of course, this cannot mean that Muslims should turn their attention from exposing peaceful apostates to hunting down and killing all those with extremist views. If this had been the case, the Prophet (PBUH) would surely have done it in the case of those whom he identified as being of an extremist bent. However, the opposite is true, as the following hadith from Sahih Muslim (12/186) makes abundantly clear:

حدثنا محمد بن رمح بن المهاجر، أخبرنا الليث، عن يحيى بن سعيد، عن أبي الزبير، عن جابر بن عبد الله، قال: أتى رجل رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم بالجعرانة منصرفه من حنين، وفي ثوب بلال فضة، ورسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يقبض منها، يعطي الناس، فقال: يا محمد، اعدل، قال: ويلك ومن يعدل إذا لم أكن أعدل؟ لقد خبت وخسرت إن لم أكن أعدل. فقال عمر بن الخطاب رضي الله عنه: دعني، يا رسول الله فأقتل هذا المنافق، فقال: معاذ الله، أن يتحدث الناس أني أقتل أصحابي، إن هذا وأصحابه يقرءون القرآن، لا يجاوز حناجرهم، يمرقون منه كما يمرق السهم من الرمية

[Narrated] from Jabir ibn Abd Allah, who said: "A man came to God's Messenger (PBUH) at al-Jir'anah, on his return from [the battle of] Hunayn; and in Bilal's clothes was some silver, which God's Messenger (PBUH) was taking handfuls of and giving to the people. So [the man] said: 'O Muhammad, be just.' [The Prophet] said: 'Woe to you! And who will be just if I am not just? You have surely failed and lost if I have not been just.' Then Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) said: 'O Messenger of God, shall I kill this hypocrite?' [The Prophet] said: 'God forbid that people say that I kill my companions. This [man] and his companions recite the Qur'an, [but] it does not go beyond their throats. They pass through it as an arrow passes through prey.'"

Here the Prophet (PBUH), at the same time as exposing the true nature of this individual and others like him, nonetheless honours him by including him among his Companions. Would he (PBUH) have done so, had the man been an apostate or, as Umar labelled him, a hypocrite? God knows best.

Finally, from the hadiths recorded in Sahih Muslim (12/204), and again referring explicitly not to apostates but to the violent extremist Muslims known as the Khawarij:

حدثنا عبد بن حميد، حدثنا عبد الرزاق بن همام، حدثنا عبد الملك بن أبي سليمان، حدثنا سلمة بن كهيل، حدثني زيد بن وهب الجهني، أنه كان في الجيش الذين كانوا مع علي رضي الله عنه، الذين ساروا إلى الخوارج، فقال علي رضي الله عنه: أيها الناس إني سمعت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يقول: يخرج قوم من أمتي يقرءون القرآن، ليس قراءتكم إلى قراءتهم بشيء، ولا صلاتكم إلى صلاتهم بشيء، ولا صيامكم إلى صيامهم بشيء، يقرءون القرآن يحسبون أنه لهم وهو عليهم، لا تجاوز صلاتهم تراقيهم يمرقون من الإسلام كما يمرق السهم من الرمية. لو يعلم الجيش الذين يصيبونهم، ما قضي لهم على لسان نبيهم صلى الله عليه وسلم، لاتكلوا عن العمل، «وآية ذلك أن فيهم رجلا له عضد، وليس له ذراع، على رأس عضده مثل حلمة الثدي، عليه شعرات بيض» فتذهبون إلى معاوية وأهل الشام وتتركون هؤلاء يخلفونكم في ذراريكم وأموالكم، والله، إني لأرجو أن يكونوا هؤلاء القوم، فإنهم قد سفكوا الدم الحرام، وأغاروا في سرح الناس، فسيروا على اسم الله. قال سلمة بن كهيل: فنزلني زيد بن وهب منزلا، حتى قال: مررنا على قنطرة، فلما التقينا وعلى الخوارج يومئذ عبد الله بن وهب الراسبي، فقال: لهم ألقوا الرماح، وسلوا سيوفكم من جفونها، فإني أخاف أن يناشدوكم كما ناشدوكم يوم حروراء، فرجعوا فوحشوا برماحهم، وسلوا السيوف، وشجرهم الناس برماحهم، قال: وقتل بعضهم على بعض، وما أصيب من الناس يومئذ إلا رجلان، فقال علي رضي الله عنه: التمسوا فيهم المخدج، فالتمسوه فلم يجدوه، فقام علي رضي الله عنه بنفسه حتى أتى ناسا قد قتل بعضهم على بعض، قال: أخروهم، فوجدوه مما يلي الأرض، فكبر، ثم قال: صدق الله، وبلغ رسوله، قال: فقام إليه عبيدة السلماني، فقال: يا أمير المؤمنين، ألله الذي لا إله إلا هو، لسمعت هذا الحديث من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم؟ فقال: إي، والله الذي لا إله إلا هو، حتى استحلفه ثلاثا، وهو يحلف له

Zayd ibn Wahb al-Juhani told me that he was in the army who were with Ali (may God be pleased with him), who marched out against the Khawarij. Ali (may God be pleased with him) said: "O people, I heard God's Messenger (PBUH) say: 'A people will come out of my Ummah who recite the Qur'an [in such a way that] your recitiation is as nothing next to their recitation, your prayer is as nothing next to their prayer, and your fasting is as nothing next to their fasting. They recite the Qur'an thinking that it supports them, while it is against them. Their prayer does not go beyond their throats. They pass through Islam as an arrow passes through prey." ...

Given that all those described by the Prophet (PBUH) "passing through" the religion, or Islam, in the above hadiths quoted from Sahih Muslim relate to Muslims, not apostates, does it not make sense that the hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari concerning the three categories of Muslim who warrant the death penalty may have been wrongly applied to apostates?

As it says in the Qur'an (49/9):

{وَإِنْ طَائِفَتَانِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ اقْتَتَلُوا فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَهُمَا فَإِنْ بَغَتْ إِحْدَاهُمَا عَلَى الْأُخْرَى فَقَاتِلُوا الَّتِي تَبْغِي حَتَّى تَفِيءَ إِلَى أَمْرِ اللَّهِ فَإِنْ فَاءَتْ فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَهُمَا بِالْعَدْلِ وَأَقْسِطُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ}

{And if two parties of the believers should fight, reconcile the two of them; but if one of the two [parties] should [continue to] oppress the other, fight the one which is oppressing until it submits to God's command. Then, if it submits, reconcile the two of them with justice, and be fair; indeed, God loves those who are fair.}

The Qur'an orders those in power to take up arms and fight against any group of Muslims that prefers to harm and oppress others rather than to negotiate a reconciliation. Obviously, such fighting by the ruling authority may lead to bloodshed before the rebellious group agrees to submit to God's command and to be reconciled. Seen in this light, what the above hadiths indicate is that the killing of rebels in battle is deemed lawful homicide. And a rebel is by definition a "renegade from the religion who leaves the community" (i.e. among those who "recite the Qur'an thinking that it supports them, while it is against them" and so "pass through Islam as an arrow passes through prey") because they put their quarrel above the lives of others thus ignoring, as the original Kharawij did, the above qur'anic injunction to submit to God's command to accept a negotiated settlement as well as acting contrary to the Prophet's (PBUH) description of the true Muslim, recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari (81/73):

حدثنا آدم بن أبي إياس، قال: حدثنا شعبة، عن عبد الله بن أبي السفر، وإسماعيل بن أبي خالد، عن الشعبي، عن عبد الله بن عمرو رضي الله عنهما، عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: المسلم من سلم المسلمون من لسانه ويده، والمهاجر من هجر ما نهى الله عنه

[Narrated] from Abd Allah ibn 'Amr (may God be pleased with him), from the Prophet (PBUH), who said: "A Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the Muslims are safe..."

God knows best.

Finally, on the strength of the above, those referred to in the earlier hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari as"renegade from the religion" appear to be Muslim rebels against a Muslim-led government and not apostates from Islam; and this is supported by the hadith reported on the authority of Aishah. If this conclusion is correct, then it follows logically that all the narrations must also refer to such people, regardless of their wording, as in Sahih Muslim (28/34) for example:

حدثنا أبو بكر بن أبي شيبة، حدثنا حفص بن غياث، وأبو معاوية، ووكيع، عن الأعمش، عن عبد الله بن مرة، عن مسروق، عن عبد الله، قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: لا يحل دم امرئ مسلم يشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأني رسول الله إلا بإحدى ثلاث الثيب الزان والنفس بالنفس والتارك لدينه المفارق للجماعة

[Narrated] from ِAbd Allah [Ibn Mas'ud], who said that God's Messenger (PBUH) said: "It is not lawful to shed the blood of a Muslim who bears witness that there is no god but God and that I am the Messenger of God except for one of three [reasons]: the married person who performs unlawful sex; a life for a life; and the one who abandons his religion and cuts himself off from the community."

See also the Qur'anic verses cited by Jamal al-Banna (جمال البنا) on the topic of freedom of conscience and belief. For a full exposition of his views on the penalty for apostasy in Islam, see تفنيد دعوى حد الردة (lit. A refutation of the claim of a prescribed penalty for apostasy)

Permalink to bibliographic record in Library of Congress catalogue: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006320872

This article was composed by Roderic Vassie on 28th September 2014.