The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam — Page xi
ix Foreword From the earliest days till now Islam and the world of Islam have not been harmed so severely by any external enemy as by some simple-minded Muslim ulema themselves. In fact, the enemies of Islam have utilized the unwise religious edicts of these naive ulema as a basis to attack Islam. The wrong trend among the ulema took place when, under the influence of changing socio-political environment, they preferred to adopt some politically coloured Islamic interpretations and ignored the clear teachings of the Qur’an and the noble precedence set by the Holy Prophet sa. Killing of apostate is one of such erroneous trends and baseless convictions. In fact, this menacing tenet is based neither on the Qur’an nor on the practice of the Prophet sa of Islam. It was merely a political idea invented with the help of some biased ulema, and used by Abbasid caliphs and other rulers to grind their political axe. Later it took such momentum that even the unbiased ulema were influenced by this wrong trend. Unfortunately, the later generation of ulema, who followed the old schools of thought, adopted this unIslamic view uncritically without further research. This dangerous and untenable belief produced very grave consequences. On minor differences some eminent scholars of Islam were declared apostates by the ulema who opposed them. The rulers and some