Punishment of Apostacy in Islam — Page 62
62 having captured them, he asked them to acknowledge his prophethood. Abdullah yielded to his persuasion and became an apostate, but Habeeb stoutly resisted and Musailamah had him cut up limb by limb and then burned him (Khamees, Vol. II, p. 641). In the face of all this, can the advocates of the penalty of death for apostacy still contend that Musailamah was fought only on account of his apostacy and that his case lends any support to the thesis that simple apostacy is punishable with death? Musailamah had become so strong that when he fought Khalid bin Waleed in Yamamah, he had under his command 40,000 warriors of the Banu Haneefah alone. The fighting was so severe as the Muslims had not experienced before. Yet those who differ with us represent Musailamah as a harmless apostate and contend that if simple apostacy was not punishable, he should have been left alone. Apostate and Rebel Another instance which is cited by our opponents in support of their thesis is that of Tulaiha, another claimant to prophethood. This shows again that the divines who rely upon the cases of Musailamah and Tulaiha in support of their thesis are either ignorant or dishonest. They were not only apostates, but took up the sword against Islam and sought to dominate Arabia after destroying the Muslims. Tulaiha bin Khawailad Asadi had become an apostate in the life of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him. He settled down at Sumaira and gathered a force around him. After the death of the