Punishment of Apostacy in Islam — Page 69
69 government revenues and refused to pay them. Umm Qarfah Our opponents cite the case of a woman apostate, Umm Qarfah, who was put to death under the authority of Hazrat Abu Bakr. In her case also, it was not a simple case of apostacy. It is recorded in Masboot, Vol. X, p110: Umm Qarfah had as many as thirty sons, whom she constantly exhorted to fight the Muslims. Thus she paid the penalty of treason against the state and was not punished on account of her apostacy. Hazrat Ali and Khawaraj Our opponents also try to take undue advantage of Hazrat Ali’s fighting the Khawaraj; but that does not help them either. To begin with, the preponderant opinion of the divines has been that the Khawaraj were not apostates, but were a Muslim sect who had raised the standard of rebellion against Hazrat Ali. It is recorded in Fatehal Bari, Vol. XII, p. 267: Khattabi states that the Muslim divines are agreed that the Khawaraj, despite their error, are one of the sects of Islam. Inter-marriage is lawful with them and they cannot be held to be disbelievers so long as they adhere basically to Islam. At page 268 of the same book it is recorded: Ibn Batal has said that a consensus of the divines holds that the Khawaraj are not outside Islam. The Tafsir Kabeer of Imam Razi records at page 614 of Vol. III: An apostate is one who repudiates the Islamic law. People who opposed Hazrat Ali had not given up following the Islamic law. No one has said that Hazrat Ali fought them because they