Punishment of Apostacy in Islam — Page 40
40 greatly incensed at their apostacy and exploded: What! You have believed in him even before I gave you leave! Surely, this is a plot that you have hatched together in the city, that you may turn out therefrom its people, but you shall soon know the consequences. Most surely will I cut off your hands and feet on alternate sides, then will I crucify you all together. They answered: What then? In any case, to our Lord shall we return. Thou art incensed with us only because we have believed in the Signs of our Lord when they came to us. We pray to our Lord: Send down on us steadfastness and cause us to die in a state of submission to Thee (7:124-127). Again it is said: Pharoah stormed: What! Do you believe in him before I give you leave? He must be your chief who has taught you magic. Therefore, I will certainly cut off your hands and your feet on alternate sides, and I will surely crucify you on the trunks of palm trees. Then shall you know which of us can inflict severer and more lasting punishment. They retorted: We cannot prefer thee to the manifest signs that have come to us, nor to Him Who created us. So decree what thou wilt decree, thou canst but terminate this present life. We have believed in our Lord that He may forgive us our sin and forgive us the deceit that thou hast forced us to practise. Allah is the Best and Most- Abiding (20:72-74). Those who contend the punishment of an apostate is instant death, identify themselves with the opponents of truth in all ages. In the case of Pharaoh and the magicians who announced their faith in Moses, the magicians were clearly apostates in the estimation of Pharaoh who himself claimed to be their god and could, therefore, not tolerate their believing in any other god.