Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 97
Mercy for the Universe. Prophet said: 'No, but let us deal kindly with him and make much of his companionship while he is with us. '12. Muslim rulers, who understood why the Holy Prophets treated. Abdullah b. Ubayy and other hypocrites and Jews as he did, have been extremely reluctant to create false martyrs in the process of protecting the honour of the Prophet (Namus-i-Rasul). In Cordova, between 850 and 859, a group of Christian zealots was formed under the leadership of. Eulogius. The members of this group were determined to denounce the. Holy Prophets publicly and to accept martyrdom. The qadis of Cordova, however, refused to oblige them and jailed them instead. Will Durant reports one such incident:. Isaac, a Cordovan monk, went to the qadi and professed a desire for conversion; but when the judge, well pleased, began to expound Mohammedanism, the monk interrupted him: 'Your Prophet', he said, 'has lied and deceived you. May he be cursed, who has dragged so many wretches with him down to hell!' The qadi reproved him and asked had he been drinking? The monk replied: ‘I am in my right mind. Condemn me to death. ' The qadi had him imprisoned, but asked permission of Abd-ur. Rahman II to dismiss him as insane. 13. Shaykhul Islam Ebus'u'ud Effendi, chief mufti of the Ottoman. Empire during the reign of the Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, allowed the death penalty, but only for habitual and public defamers of the Holy Prophetsa. Shaykhul Islam went out of his way to insist that execution should not be ordered lightly. He clearly wished to avoid frivolous and malicious prosecutions and laid down that an offender could not be treated as habitual ‘merely on the word of one or two persons'. The habitual character of the offender had to be proved to the authorities by impartial (begharaz) Muslims, who had no axe to grind. But there was an important rider to this which showed that though Shaykhul Islam Ebussuud issued a fatwa without any Quranic or hadith authority, he knew the punishment of sabb was Allah's alone. The fatwa was issued, probably under political pressure, because he nullified its entire effect by stating that unbelievers were not held guilty for declaring 'that which constitutes their disbelief': that is, for rejecting Muhammad'ssa prophetic mission. . The quality of a Muslim's faith and the measure of respect he holds for the Prophet cannot be legally defined. Conversely, an unbeliever can neither be forced to embrace Islam nor to honour its Prophets at gunpoint. This is why God has prescribed no punishment for irtidad or sabb in this world. Despite the disparaging words uttered by Abdullah b. 97