Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 83
Punishment for Apostasy. Hazrat Abu Bakr. She had thirty sons whom she constantly exhorted to fight the Muslims. She paid the price for her treason and for her complicity in murder, not on account of her apostasy. ⁹ g) The case of Hazrat Ali fighting the Khawarij is often cited. The. Khawarij created disorder in the land, killed Muslim men and women, the governor appointed by Hazrat Ali, his female slave, and also Ali's emissary. 10 (This incident has been discussed on p. 70. ) h) Reference needs to be made to the appointments of Muaz b. Jabal and. Abu Musa Ashari, each as governor of a part of Yemen. As they were about to leave, the Holy Prophets instructed them: 'Make things easy for people and do not put them into difficulty. Talk to them cheerfully and not in a manner that might repel them' One day Muaz came to meet Abu. Musa Ashari and noticed a person sitting there who had been secured with a rope. When Muaz enquired about this he was told that that person was a Jew who had become a Muslim and then became an apostate. The narrator adds that for the past two to three months the Muslims had reasoned with him in order to persuade him to become a Muslim but to no avail. Muaz declared that he would not dismount until the person had been executed and observed that this was the judgement of God and His. Messenger. This last remark indicates no more than his personal opinion of what he understood to be the Will of God and His prophet. Such opinions carry no weight in law unless they are completely substantiated by references which verify the claim. (This principle is elaborated subsequently in this chapter. ). Now let us examine the reliability of this tradition. Muaz's remark contradicts the instruction of the Holy Prophets to make things easy for people and not in a manner which might repel them. To place reliance on one tradition without investigating Muaz's understanding of Islam on a key issue where human rights are involved is sheer absurdity. . Considerable doubt prevails regarding this tradition, the chain of narrators and their authenticity. Wherever such disputes arise, the tradition is rejected outright. It should be remembered that these traditions were compiled some three to four centuries after the advent of Islam and that, over a passage of time, memories are prone to error. According to one tradition, the Jew was beheaded upon Muaz's instructions. " In the second tradition, Muaz himself beheaded the Jew. 12 When such fundamental differences occur in a key incident, how can anyone accept the authenticity of these traditions? People may forget what someone said, but if they were eye-witnesses they would at least remember what 83