The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam — Page 110
110 A TRADITION FROM THE F A R U Q I ERA: Let us move on to the circumstances of the era of Hadrat ‘Umar ra. The Hadith that Maul a n a Maud u d i presents from this era is: "‘Amr bin al-‘ As , Governor of Egypt, wrote to Hadrat Umar ra that a man had accepted Islam but became an infidel, returned to Islam, but once again disbelieved. He had repeated that process many a time. Should his Islam be accepted or not? Hadrat ‘Umar ra replied that as long as Allah, the Exalted, accepted his Islam, he should keep on doing so. Islam should be presented to him, if he accepted, his life should be spared, otherwise he should be put to death. " 109* They deduce from the last bit 'otherwise he should be put to death' that surely the punishment of apostasy was death and that is why Hadrat ‘Umar ra said so. If the punishment of apostasy was indeed death, then it was impossible for an austere Khalifa like Hadrat ‘Umar ra to give the above-mentioned answer. He would have issued a strict reprimand to the governor as to on what authority he had to grant that 109 Irtid a d k i Saz a Islam i Q a n u n Mei n , Page 18. [Publisher] * The reference is to a Hadith mentioned in Kanzul ‘Umm a l, Kit a bul Im a ni Wal Isl a mi, Min Qismil Af‘ a l, Al-Fa s lul Kh a mis F i H ukmil Islam i , Al- Irtid a du Wa A h k a muh u Part I, Hadith No. 1463. [Publisher]