Between the Sudanese Woman Sentenced to Death for Reverting from Islam and the Jordanian Woman Killed for Embracing Islam
The west, especially western media, went crazy –literally- over a Sudanese woman sentenced to death for reverting from Islam, pressuring the Sudanese government to free the woman: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27651483. Meanwhile, has anyone outside or even inside Jordan heard or read about the 26 year old Jordanian woman who left Christianity and embraced Islam, only to be killed by her own father, and maybe also her uncle: http://www.worldbulletin.net/muslim-world/135279/jordanian-christian-kills-daughter-for-converting-to-islam?
What does the Bible say about those who revert from the faith?
Here is a question I received before on compulsion in religion vs. killing the apostate
Question: Many Muslim groups in the US, like CAIR, MAS, MPAC, said that since there is no compulsion in Islam, how can [a Muslim government] execute the apostate … your website said that the apostate should be executed, this is not from Islam only, but in Christian times (pre-Islam) … And… what about a person who might have left Islam and then came back, and died Muslim … if s/he had been killed the first time, s/he would not have had the chance to return to Islam.
Answer: I do not have knowledge if these organizations actually take this position. Nevertheless, the answer is still clear and simple. Allah said in the Arabi Quran, this is the meaning in English, {There is no compulsion in religion} (2:256). This is the explanation of this Ayah: Imam Ibn Kathir said, “This Ayah means, ‘Do not force anyone to embrace the religion of Islam, because Islam is clear, plain, and its evidences and proofs are indisputable. Therefore, it is not necessary that anyone be forced to embrace it. Rather, those who Allah guides, opens their hearts and enlightens their minds towards Islam, will embrace it with knowledge. Those who Allah prevents their hearts and seals their hearing and sight from accepting Islam, will not benefit from being forced to embrace it.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol. 1, Pg., 416)
This Ayah is about those who are not Muslim: Muslims are not allowed to force non-Muslims to embrace Islam. This does not have anything to do with the punishment of Muslims who commit crimes, such as abandoning Islam, thus, becoming non-Muslim after they had been Muslim. The opinion mentioned in the question does not give confidence in the type of knowledge that prevails among many Muslims these days. It seems that the reason behind using this logic to invalidate clear aspects of Islamic Law, is to suit modern-day disbelievers who will stop at nothing less than the complete corruption of Islam, {Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their religion. Say: “Verily, the Guidance of Allâh (Islâmic Monotheism) that is the (only) Guidance.” And if you were to follow their (Jews and Christians) desires after what you have received of Knowledge (the Qur’an and Sunnah), then you would have against Allâh neither any Walî (protector or guardian) nor any helper.} (2:120)
These are two completely different topics: forcing non-Muslims to embrace Islam vs. the punishment, carried out by the Islamic State –not individuals- of those who were Muslim but committed the crime of abandoning Islam. If we follow this faulty reasoning, then what about the remainder of the Hadeeth that legislates the law of punishment for reverting from Islam, reported by Bukhari and Muslim, from Allah’s Prophet, who said, “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His (Allah’s) Messenger, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas (Law of Equity) for murder; a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse; and the one who reverts from Islam (apostates) and leaves the Muslims.” Should we also abandon the punishment for the adulterer, since ‘there is no compulsion in religion’? Should we only accept one or two out of three laws mentioned in this Hadeeth? Should we abandon other parts of the Islamic penal code if the offense does not really harm others, such as abandoning prayer, drinking, cursing the Prophet, salla-llahu `alaihi wa-sallam, etc., since ‘there is no compulsion in religion’? Who has any right to contradict the Prophet of Allah, salla-llahu `alaihi wa-sallam, who says, “He who reverts from his religion, then kill him” (As-Silsilah As-Sahihah 487)? And those who contradict him, had they been alive during his time, salla-llahu `alaihi wa-sallam, would they have corrected the Prophet, who received the Quran, by reminding him that in Islam, which he brought from Allah, ‘there is no compulsion in religion’? Muslims should be strong and stand behind every part of their law, if they seek Allah’s Help and Support that is. I should emphasize here again that only the Muslim government -not individual Muslims or so-called Islamic or Jihadi parties- is allowed to carry out these laws.
As for the second part of the question, about if we leave the apostate un-punished he or she might go back to Islam, then what is stopping them from doing so before being killed, even if to become a hypocrite? Before punishment for apostates from Islam is carried out, Muslim judges and scholars will investigate each case and argue with each individual about their reason for reverting from Islam. This will give the criminals ample time to repent and re-embrace Islam.
Additionally, what if the revert does not repent in the future and tempts others who have weak hearts and faith to follow them, should Muslims stand idle while whole segments of the Muslim society become non-Muslim? Hopefully, no Evangelical will pick up on this last sentence of mine to use it against Islam, because I will remind them of this ‘piece’ from the law that their ‘prince of peace (Jesus)’ allegedly revealed to the prophets of old: “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder. And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers. Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth. Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him. But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying. Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known. Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you. Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the Lord thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again. And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers. When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-18)
The difference between the rulings of Islam, that punishes only the offender, and the fabricated edicts of the Old Testament, where wholesale killings is carried out against entire cities, is clear for all to see and contemplate. So, this is a law that exists in their holy books, the Literal Word of God, so they proclaim. If they abandon their holy books, why should we follow suit and abandon ours? We must all remember that the final meeting place and time for all creation is on the Day or Resurrection, with Allah. What excuse can we possibly offer Allah for abandoning His law to suit disbelievers, when He already ordained on us in the Quran and His Messenger’s Sunnah that we should contradict and defy them, not follow their ways and desires?
I should repeat here that, individual Muslims are not allowed nor should they on their own carry the punishment for reverting from Islam or stoning the adulterer, etc. Muslim scholars and judges are the only ones qualified to investigate these cases, and if there is punishment to be carried out, it has to be under the direction and direct control of Muslim rulers and governments.
Jalal Abualrub (www.islamlife.com)