Islam and Human Rights — Page 162
Isl am and Hum an R ights 162 disbelief or a hypocritical profession of belief. Should anyone cease to believe in Islam, he does not thereby incur any legal penalty. From the point of view of Islam he abandons the path of peace, security, beneficence and progress, and puts his moral and spiritual welfare in jeopardy. In the Hereafter he will be among the losers. “Whoever rejects the faith his work has doubtless come to naught, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers” (5:6). But in all matters of conscience his choice continues to be free. This follows from “There shall be no compulsion in faith” (2:257). If, along with his change of faith or in conse quence of it, he indulges in activities which constitute an offence, he will render himself liable to punishment for the offence, in the same manner and to the same degree in which he would have been liable had he been guilty of the offence without any change of faith. In other words, apostacy, by itself, however condemnable is a spiritual offence and entails no temporal penalty. This is the essence of the freedom to change one’s religion. The Quran is explicit on it. He who turns his back on the truth having once re - cognized and accepted it, and persists in his rejection of it till death overtakes him and no opportunity is left open to him to retrace his steps and make amends, enters the Hereafter in a state of spiritual bankruptcy. “They