The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam — Page 136
136 This narration also confirms that the Righteous Khal i fa, Hadrat ‘Umar ra was opposed to the concept of killing the apostates. EARLY ULEMA AND THE CONCEPT OF APOSTASY: When they cannot find any solid and strong evidence in the eras of the Holy Prophet sa and the Righteous Khulaf a ’, those who are in favour of death penalty for the apostates start talking about Ijm a ‘ [consensus of opinion]. They infer this from the opinions of the Ulema of the middle ages of Islam (when darkness prevailed) and declare that there was an Ijm a ‘ on this issue. Hence, no argument is acceptable against the Ijm a ‘. THE CLAIM OF IJM A ‘ IS INCORRECT: FIRST ARGUMENT: I have already given an argument against this Ijm a ‘ that in the era of Hadrat Ab u Bakr ra , apostates were caught but not killed. 128 Therefore, the Ijm a ‘ of that time was against the death penalty of apostates. If there was an Ijm a ‘ on the 128 T a rikhul T abr i , Part III, H aw a dith 11AH, pp 259-263; T a r i kh Ibni Khald u n, Al-Qismur Rabi‘i , Vol. II, p 864-865. [Publisher]