Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 81
Punishment for Apostasy their sleeves. It is necessary to examine their remaining arguments at greater length. Those arguments are based on the opinions of the. Companions of the Holy Prophet, and not directly on his own personal judgement. Let it be known at the outset that observations or opinions of. Companions can only be a commentary; they have no right to be treated with as much respect as an injunction of the Holy Quran. At best they can only be regarded as an opinion. a) The incident of the widespread apostasy in relation to the payment of zakat has been discussed (pages 69-72). The Abs and the Zubyan were the tribes which initiated hostilities by attacking Medina. Hazrat Abu. Bakr fought them before the return of Osama from his expedition. The apostates were the aggressors. They not only refused to pay zakat, but also took up the sword against the Muslims. Thus they rebelled against the Islamic state, slaughtered the Muslims amongst them by burning some alive and mutilated those they had killed. ³ Those who advocate execution for apostasy on the authority of this incident are either ignorant of the facts or deliberately seek to mislead people by playing down the killing of innocent Muslims by the rebels. b) The advocates then pose the question that if there was no punishment for apostasy, why was Musailmah the imposter not left alone? The truth is that Musailmah aspired to political power. He had accompanied Abu. Hanifa and offered to the Holy Prophets his submission subject to his being nominated as his successor. The Holy Prophetsa told Musailmah that he would not yield him even a twig of a date palm tree. Musailmah returned and claimed that half of Arabia belonged to him. He sent a letter to the Holy Prophets in which he claimed: 'I have been appointed your partner in authority. ' The Holy Prophetsa responded by quoting to him verse 129 of chapter 7 of the Holy Quran. * After Musailmah's claim of prophethood, he captured Habeeb b. Zaid, a Companion of the Holy. Prophets, dismembered him limb from limb, and then burned his remains. The advocates of capital punishment ignore this gruesome murder and claim that apostasy was the only crime attributable to Musailmah. . Had he not commited murder, would he have been killed for the crime of apostasy alone? Was he not brought to justice for the murder and for the mayhem and disorder which he created in the land? There is not the slightest shred of evidence that having heard of Musailmah's rejection of his prophethood, the Holy Prophets condemned Musailmah to death or exhorted any of his Companions to kill him. Having failed to find evidence of any specific condemnation by the Holy Prophets, Maulana 81