The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam — Page 95
95 Hadith is found against it, which seems to openly contradict the evident and definitive Quranic injunction, it is the requisite of taqw a 97 to dismiss the apparently authentic Hadith. Moreover, we do not find any mention whether the Holy Prophet sa was informed of this incidence, and if he was, how did he respond to it? Quite apart from this, there are many other A ha d i th , which very clearly negate this subject, e. g. , the ones I have already mentioned above. So, Quranic verses, the Sunna, history of Islam and the consistency with which the Holy Prophet sa did not ever give orders for the killing of an apostate while he was alive. He went on living, despite his apostacy, till he met his natural death; or was deprived of his life for reasons other than those of apostasy. All this proves that such an important belief can not be founded on so weak an argument. THE S IDD I Q I ERA AND APOSTASY I shall now talk about the Khilafat (Caliphate) of Hadrat Ab u Bakr ra. In most books that are written on the topic of death as the punishment of apostasy that you will come across, you will notice that the scholars, having discussed the Holy Qur’an and Hadith in a cursory manner swiftly move on to the period of 97 Fear of God. [Publisher]