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[l]Reward in paradise for killer of apostate [/l]
[l] An important factor encouraging obedience to the command to kill apostates is the special reward in Paradise earned by the killer according to hadith. Sahih Muslim and Bukhari record this as follows:
Bukhari, 4.808: Ali ibn Abu Talib,
I relate the traditions of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) to you for I would rather fall from the sky than attribute something to him falsely. But when I tell you a thing which is between you and me, then no doubt, war is guile.
I heard Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) saying, "In the last days of this world there will appear some young foolish people who will use (in their claim) the best speech of all people (i.e. the Qur'an) and they will abandon Islam as an arrow going through the game: Their belief will not go beyond their throats (i.e. they will have practically no belief), so wherever you meet them, kill them, for he who kills them shall get a reward on the Day of Resurrection."
A similar hadith is found in Sahih Muslim, 2328.
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[l] Muhammad’s example [/l]
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There are reports of Muhammad himself ordering the execution of specific apostates, and not drawing the line at women. For example, one story from the hadith runs:
On the occasion of Battle of Uhud (when Muslims had to retreat) a woman became apostate. On this the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: 'Ask her to repent and if she does not repent, kill her.' (Baihaqi).
Another tradition says:
A woman named Umm Ruman committed apostasy. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ordered: She may be presented Islam. Then if she repents, it would be better, otherwise she should be put to death. (Daraquini and Baihaqi).[21]
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[l] opportunity to repent? [/l]
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There are contradictory traditions concerning whether an apostate should be given a chance to repent. The story of Mu'adh who would not dismount until the apostate had been killed suggests that no opportunity to repent need be given. However, in Abu Dawud's version of this tradition, it is added that they had tried in vain to convert the apostate back to Islam.
Bukhari, 5.632: Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri,
The Prophet (peace be upon him) sent Abu Musa and Mu'adh to Yemen and said to both of them "Facilitate things for the people (be kind and lenient) and do not make things difficult (for them). Give them good tidings, and do not repulse them; and both of you should obey each other."
Once Mu'adh asked Abu Musa, "How do you recite the Qur'an?" Abu Musa replied, "I recite it while I am standing, sitting or riding my riding animals, at intervals and piecemeal." Mu'adh said, "But I sleep and then get up. I sleep and hope for Allah's reward for my sleep as I seek His reward for my night prayer."
Then he (i.e. Mu'adh) pitched a tent and they started visiting each other.
Once Mu'adh paid a visit to Abu Musa and saw a chained man. Mu'adh asked, "What is this?" Abu Musa said, "(He was) a Jew who embraced Islam and has now turned apostate." Mu'adh said, "I will surely chop off his neck. And Mu’adh did it in such a way that maximum pain is caused to the chained man. Indeed he did according to the instruction the messenger of Allah had given him.
Abu Dawud, 4341
Abu Musa said: the Prophet (peace be upon him) came to me when I was in the Yemen. A man who was Jew embraced Islam and then retreated from Islam. When the Prophet came (peace be upon him), he said: I will not come down from my mount until he is killed. He was then killed. One of them said: He was asked to repent before that.
One of the narrators said his eyes were taken out before he was killed and the Prophet (peace be upon him) liked the way he was killed.
This text is not essentially an anti-Jewish tradition. It has less to do with Jews as Jews than with the issue of apostasy - the Islamic attitude is once a Muslim, always a Muslim - or death.
On the other hand, a tradition recorded by Malik describes the Caliph ‘Umar's horror at the idea of executing an apostate without giving him a chance to repent:
Did you then not shut him up for three days and give him a round loaf daily and try to induce him to repent? Perhaps he would have repented and returned to obedience to God. O God! I was not there, I did not order it and I do not approve; see, it was thus reported to me.
The next text is of interest because it implies that an apostate is not entitled to a decent burial, but that in death as in life he must be humiliated:
Bukhari, 4.814: Anas ibn Malik,
There was a Christian who embraced Islam and read surat al-Baqarah and Aal-Imran, and he used to write (the revelations) for the Prophet (peace be upon him).
Later on he returned to Christianity again and he used to say: "Muhammad knows nothing but what I have written for him."
Then Allah caused him to die, and the people buried him, but in the morning they saw that the earth had thrown his body out. They said, "This is the act of Muhammad and his companions. They dug the grave of our companion and took his body out of it because he had run away from them."
They again dug the grave deeply for him, but in the morning they again saw that the earth had thrown his body out. They said, "This is an act of Muhammad and his companions. They dug the grave of our companion and threw his body outside it, for he had run away from them."
They dug the grave for him as deep as they could, but in the morning they again saw that the earth had thrown his body out. So they believed that what had befallen him was not done by human beings and had to leave him thrown till vultures and dogs eat his or her body.
cont.
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