The Punishment for Apostasy in an Established Islamic Tradition

The punishment for apostasy is an established Islamic Tradition THe writes,All Muslim j urists agree that the apostate is to be puni.shed. How ever, they differ regarding the punishment itself. The majority of them go for killing; meaning that an apostate is to be sentenced to death. Authentic Hadiths have been repo d in this regard. Ibn 'Abbas reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Whoever changes his religion, you kill him." (Reported by all the group except Muslim, and at-Tabarani also reported it with a sound chain of narrators. Also recorded in Majma ' Az-Zawa'id by Al-Haythamiy.)43 Al-Qaradawi states that if an apostate proclaims and openly calls for apostasy in speech or writing, then the punishment is the death penalty, otherwise, imprisonment till repenting.[20][44 About people who are self-dec lared as Muslims but are suspected by the traditional Islamic scholars of committing what amounts to apostasy, for instance, by writing what could be interpreted as a result of disbelief in Islam or traditional . interpretation of it, according• to Al-Qaradawi who calls this "intelectual apostasy" and refers to it as a uhypocrisy (which) is •more dangerous than open disbelier •, it is not the role of the Muslim Community, ra. ther it is the role of scholars to respond to these types of ideas Intellectual apostasy is always 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 strength and thinking. The positive religious obligation here is for Muslims to launch war against such a hidden enemy, to fight it with same weapon it uses in waging attack against the society. Here comes the role of erudi te scholars who are well versed n Islamic Jurisprudence.