Murtad

Apostasy in Islam ( ar, ردة, or , ) is commonly defined as the abandonment of Islam by a Muslim, in thought, word, or through deed. An apostate from Islam is referred to by using the Arabic and Islamic term ''murtād'' (). It includes not only explicit renunciations of the Islamic faith by converting to another religion or abandoning religion altogether, but also blasphemy or heresy, through any action or utterance which implies unbelief, including those who deny a "fundamental tenet or creed" of Islam.

While classical Islamic jurisprudence calls for the death penalty of those who refuse to repent of apostasy from Islam, the definition of this act and whether and how it should be punished, are disputed among Islamic scholars and strongly opposed by Muslim and Non-Muslim supporters of the universal human right to freedom of faith.

As of 2021, there were ten Muslim-majority countries where apostasy from Islam was punishable by death, and another thirteen where there were penal or civil penalties such as jail, fines or loss of child custody. From 1985 to 2006, only four individuals were officially executed for apostasy from Islam and unrelated political crimes by governments, but apostates have suffered from other legal punishments as well as extra-judicial punishments which have been inflicted upon them by vigilantes—imprisonment, the annulment of their marriages, the loss of their rights of inheritance and the loss of custody of their children.Marshall, Paul; Shea, Nina. 2011. ''Silenced. How Apostasy & Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.61 Mainly, the loss of life has resulted from killings which have been perpetrated by jihadist and "''takfiri''" insurgents (al-Qaeda, ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh, the GIA, and the Taliban).

Until the late 19th century, the majority of Sunni and Shia jurists held the view that for adult men, apostasy from Islam was a crime as well as a sin, an act of treason which was punishable with the death penalty, often (depending on the school of law) after a waiting period to allow the apostate time to repent and to return to Islam.
But to protect against abuse, exemption was granted to those who were originally forced to embrace Islam, or who apostasized out of fear, or (according to the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i schools) who repented.J.T. Munroe (2004), Hispano-Arabic Poetry, Gorgias Press, , p. 69.
In addition, early Islamic jurists developed legal standards to limit the imposition of the harsh punishment to apostasy of a political kind, Asma Afsaruddin (2013), ''Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought'', p. 242. Oxford University Press. . which in a religious society is similar to high treason.

According to classical Islamic law, an apostate can only be killed if there are two just Muslim eyewitnesses of the apostasy or if the apostate self confesses; according to some schools, both conditions are required. Jurists allowed flexibility in the application of the death penalty, allowing judges to interpret the apostasy law in different ways, sometimes, they leniently interpreted it and at other times, they strictly interpreted it. In the late 19th century, the use of legal criminal penalties for apostasy fell into disuse, although civil penalties were still applied.

In the contemporary Muslim world, public support for capital punishment varies from 78% in Afghanistan to less than 1% in Kazakhstan; among Islamic jurists, the majority of them continue to regard apostasy as a crime which should be punishable by death.
Those who disagree
argue that its punishment should be less than death, the imposition of it should be left up to God,Forte, D. F. (1994), Apostasy and Blasphemy in Pakistan, Conn. Journal of Int'l Law, Vol. 10, pp. 27–41
(human punishment being inconsistent with Quranic injunctions against compulsion in belief), or should be enforced only if apostasy becomes a mechanism of public disobedience and disorder ('' fitna''). Secular critics of Islam argue that the death penalty or other punishment for apostasy in Islam is an issue of freedom of faith and conscience and a violation of universal human rights.

Etymology and terminology

Apostasy is called ''irtidād'' (which means relapse or regress) or ''ridda'' in Islamic literature. An apostate is called ''murtadd'', which means 'one who turns back' from Islam. (Another source—Oxford Islamic Studies Online—defines ''murtadd'' as "not just any kāfir (non-believer)", but "a particularly heinous type".) ''Ridda'' can also refer to ''secession'' in a political context.
A person born to a Muslim father who later rejects Islam is called a ''murtadd fitri'', and a person who converted to Islam and later rejects the religion is called a ''murtadd milli''. ''Takfir'' (''takfeer'') ( ar, تكفير ') is the act of one Muslim excommunicating another, declaring them a ''kafir'', an apostate. The act which precipitates ''takfir'' is termed ''mukaffir''.

Scriptural references

Quran

The Quran mentions apostasy in many of its verses, expressing God's anger, impending punishment, and refusal to accept repentance towards those who have left the faith. Traditionally, the verses that are thought to "appear to justify coercion and severe punishment" for apostates (according to Dale F. Eickelman), including the traditional capital punishment, are as follows:

Other scholars have pointed out that there is no mention in the Quran of the need to force an apostate to return to Islam, nor any specific corporal punishment to apply to apostates in ''this'' world—let alone commands to kill apostates—either explicitly or implicitly;Taha Jabir Alalwani (2003), ''La 'ikraha fi al-din: 'ichkaliyat al-riddah wa al-murtaddin min sadr al-Islam hatta al-yawm'', pp. 93–94. .

In fact, other verses emphasize mercy and lack of compulsion in belief:

Hadith

The classical shariah punishment for apostasy comes from Sahih ("authentic") Hadith rather than the Quran.Sherazad Hamit (2006), Apostasy and the Notion of Religious Freedom in Islam, Macalester Islam Journal, Volume 1, Spring 2006 Issue 2, pp. 32–38 Writing in the ''Encyclopedia of Islam'', Heffening holds that contrary to the Qur'an, "in traditions .e. hadith there is little echo of these punishments in the next world... and instead, we have in many traditions a new element, the death penalty.

Other hadith give differing statements about the fate of apostates; that they were spared execution by repenting, by dying of natural causes or by leaving their community (the last case sometimes cited as an example of open apostasy that was left unpunished).

The Muwatta of Imam Malik offers a case were Rashidun (rightly guide) Caliph Umar admonishes a Muslim leader for not giving an apostate the opportunity to repent before being executed:

The argument has been made (by the Fiqh Council of North America, among others) that the hadiths above — traditionally cited as proof that apostates from Islam should be punished by death — have been misunderstood. In fact (the council argues), the victims were executed for changing their allegiances to the armies fighting the Muslims (i.e. for treason), not for their personal beliefs. As evidence, they point to two hadith, each from a different "authentic" (''sahih'') Sunni hadith collection where Muhammad calls for the death of apostates or traitors. The wording of the hadith are almost identical, but in one, the hadith ends with the phrase "one who reverts from Islam and leaves the Muslims", and in the other it ends with "one who goes forth to fight Allah and His Apostle", (in other words, the council argues the hadith were likely reports of the same incident but had different wording because "reverting from Islam" was another way of saying "fighting Allah and His Apostle"):

What constitutes apostasy in Islam?

Scholars of Islam differ as to what constitutes apostasy in that religion and under what circumstances an apostate is subject to the death penalty.

Conditions of apostasy in classical Islam

Al-Shafi'i listed three necessary conditions to pass capital punishment on a Muslim for apostasy in his ''Kitab al-Umm''. (In the words of Frank Griffel) these are:
*"first, the apostate had to once have had faith (which, according to Al-Shafi'i's definition, means publicly professing all tenets of Islam);
*secondly, there had to follow unbelief (meaning the public declaration of a breaking-away from Islam), (having done these two the Muslim is now an unbeliever but not yet an apostate and thus not eligible for punishment);
*"third, there had to be the omission or failure to repent after the apostate was asked to do so."
Three centuries later, Al-Ghazali wrote that one group, known as "secret apostates" or "permanent unbelievers" (aka '' zandaqa''), should not be given a chance to repent, eliminating Al-Shafi'i's third condition for them although his view was not accepted by his Shafi'i madhhab.

Characteristics

Describing what qualifies as apostasy Christine Schirrmacher writes

there is widespread consensus that apostasy undoubtedly exists where the truth of the Koran is denied, where blasphemy is committed against God, Islam, or Muhammad, and where breaking away from the Islamic faith in word or deed occurs. The lasting, willful non-observance of the five pillars of Islam, in particular the duty to pray, clearly count as apostasy for most theologians. Additional distinguishing features are a change of religion, confessing atheism, nullifying the Sharia as well as judging what is allowed to be forbidden and judging what is forbidden to be allowed. Fighting against Muslims and Islam (Arabic: ''muḥāraba'') also counts as unbelief or apostasy;

Kamran Hashemi classifies apostasy or unbelief in Islam into three different "phenomena":
* Converting from Islam to another religion (or abandoning religion altogether), also described as "explicit" apostasy. (Hashemi gives the example of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan who was arrested in February 2006 and threatened with the death penalty in a lower court in Kabul for converting to Christianity).
* Blaspheming (''sabb'') (by a Muslim) against God, Islam, its laws or its prophet, which can be defined, in practice, as any objection to the authenticity of Islam, its laws or its prophet.
*Heresy; or "implicit" apostasy (by a Muslim), where the alleged apostate does not formally renounce Islam, but has (in the eyes of their accusers) verbally denied some principle of belief prescribed by Qur'an or a Hadith; deviated from approved Islamic tenets (''ilhad''). (Accusations of heresy, or ''takfir'', often involve public thinkers and theologians -- Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, Nasr Abu Zayd, Hashem Aghajari—but can involve the collective takfir of a large group and mass killings -- takfir of Algerians who did not support the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria in 1997, takfir of Shia by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2005).
*Not all types of apostasy are punishable by death. Only major apostasy requires execution.

Issues in defining heresy

While identifying someone who publicly converted to another religion as an apostate was straightforward, determining whether a diversion from orthodox doctrine qualified as heresy (or blasphemy) or something permitted by God could be less so. Traditionally, Islamic jurists did not formulate general rules for establishing unbelief, instead, compiled sometimes lengthy lists of statements and actions which in their view implied apostasy or were incompatible with Islamic "theological consensus". Al-Ghazali, for example, devoting "chapters to dealing with takfir and the reasons for which one can be accused of unbelief" in his work on ''The Criterion of Distinction between Islam and Clandestine Unbelief''.

Some heretical or blasphemous acts or beliefs listed in classical manuals of jurisprudence and other scholarly works (i.e. works written by Islamic scholars) that allegedly demonstrate apostacy include:
*to deny the obligatory character of something considered obligatory by Ijma (consensus of Muslims);
*revile, question, wonder, doubt, mock or deny the existence of God or Prophet of Islam or that the Prophet was sent by God;
*belief that things in themselves or by their nature have a cause independent of the will of God;
*to assert the createdness of the Quran, to translate the Quran;Shaykhzadeh, ''Madjma' al-anhur'' (1, p.629-37); cited in
*According to some to ridicule Islamic scholars or address them in a derisive manner, to reject the validity of Shariah courts;
*Some also say to pay respect to non-Muslims, to celebrate Nowruz the Iranian New Year;
*Though disputed to express uncertainty such as "'I do not know why God mentioned this or that in the Quran'...";
*Some also say include for the wife of an Islamic scholar to curse her husband;
*to make a declaration of Prophethood (i.e. for someone to declare that they are a prophet. In early Islamic history, after Muhammad's death, this act was automatically deemed to be proof of apostasy—because Islam teaches Muhammad was the last prophet, there could be no more). (This view is alleged to be the basis of the rejection of the Ahmadiyya as apostates from Islam.)Siddiq & Ahmad (1995), Enforced Apostasy: Zaheeruddin v. State and the Official Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan, Law & Inequality, Volume 14, pp. 275–89, 321–24Burhani A. N. (2013), Treating minorities with fatwas: a study of the Ahmadiyya community in Indonesia, Contemporary Islam, Volume 8, Issue 3, pp. 286–88, 285–301

While there are numerous requirements for a Muslim to avoid being an apostate, it is also an act of apostasy (in Shafi'i and other fiqh) for a Muslim to accuse or describe another devout Muslim of being an unbeliever,Nuh Ha Mim Keller (1997), Umdat as-Salik by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, , pp. 596–98, Section O-8.7 based on the hadith where Muhammad is reported to have said: "If a man says to his brother, 'You are an infidel,' then one of them is right."

Historian Bernard Lewis writes that in "religious polemic" of early Islamic times, it was common for one scholar to accuse another of apostasy, but attempts to bring an alleged apostate to justice (have them executed) were very rare.

The tension between desire to cleanse Islam of heresy and fear of inaccurate takfir is suggested in the writings of some of the leading Islamic scholars. Al-Ghazali "is often credited with having persuaded theologians", in his ''Fayal al-tafriqa'', "that takfir is not a fruitful path and that utmost caution is to taken in applying it", but in other writing, he made sure to condemn as beyond the pale of Islam "philosophers and Ismaili esotericists". Ibn Hazm and Ibn Taymiyyah also "warned against unbridled takfir" while takfiring "specific categories" of theological opponents as "unbelievers". Gilles Kepel writes that "used wrongly or unrestrainedly, this sanction would quickly lead to discord and sedition in the ranks of the faithful. Muslims might resort to mutually excommunicating one another and thus propel the Ummah to complete disaster."Kepel, Gilles; ''Jihad: the Trail of Political Islam'', London: I.B. Tauris, 2002, page 31

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), for example, takfired all those who opposed its policy of enslaving members of the Yazidi religion. According to one source, Jamileh Kadivar, the majority of the "27,947 terrorist deaths" ISIL has been responsible for (as of 2020) have been Muslims it regards "as kafir", as ISIL gives fighting alleged apostates a higher priority than fighting self-professed non-Muslims—Jews, Christians, Hindus, etc. An open letter to ISIL by 126 Islamic scholars includes as one of its points of opposition to ISIL: "It is forbidden in Islam to declare people non-Muslim unless he (or she) openly declares disbelief".

There is general agreement among Muslims that the takfir and mass killings of alleged apostates perpetrated not only by ISIL but also by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's jihadis were wrong, but there is less unanimity in other cases, such as what to do in a situation where self-professed Muslim(s) — post-modernist academic Nasr Abu Zayd or the Ahmadiyya movement — disagree with their accusers on an important doctrinal point. (Ahmadi quote a Muslim journalist, Abdul-Majeed Salik, claiming that, "all great and eminent Muslims in the history of Islam as well as all the sects in the Muslim world are considered to be disbelievers, apostates, and outside the pale of Islam according to one or the other group of religious leaders".) In the case of the Ahmadiyya—who are accused by mainstream Sunni and Shia of denying the basic tenet of the Finality of Prophethood (Ahmadis state they believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is a mahdi and a messiah)—the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has declared in Ordinance XX of the Second Amendment to its Constitution, that Ahmadis are non-Muslims and deprived them of religious rights. Several large riots (1953 Lahore riots, 1974 Anti-Ahmadiyya riots) and a bombing (2010 Ahmadiyya mosques massacre) have killed hundreds of Ahmadis in that country. Whether this is unjust takfir or applying sharia to collective apostasy is disputed.

;Overlap with blasphemy

The three types (conversion, blasphemy and heresy) of apostasy may overlap—for example some "heretics" were alleged not to be actual self-professed Muslims, but (secret) members of another religion, seeking to destroy Islam from within. (Abdullah ibn Mayun al-Qaddah, for example, "fathered the whole complex development of the Ismaili religion and organisation up to Fatimid times," was accused by his different detractors of being (variously) "a Jew, a Bardesanian and most commonly as an Iranian dualist") In Islamic literature, the term "blasphemy" sometimes also overlaps with ("unbelief"), (depravity), (insult), and (apostasy). Because blasphemy in Islam included rejection of fundamental doctrines, blasphemy has historically been seen as an evidence of rejection of Islam, that is, the religious crime of apostasy. Some jurists believe that blasphemy automatically implies a Muslim has left the fold of Islam. A Muslim may find himself accused of being a blasphemer, and thus an apostate on the basis of one action or utterance.

;Collective apostasy
In collective apostasy, a self-proclaimed Islamic group/sect are declared to be heretics/apostates. Groups treated as collective apostates include zindiq, sometimes Sufis, and more recently Ahmadis and Bahais. As described above, the difference between legitimate Muslim sects and illegitimate apostate groups can be subtle and Muslims have not agreed on where the line dividing them lies. According to Gianluca Parolin, "collective apostasy has always been declared on a case-by-case basis".

;Fetri and national apostates
Among Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and others in Ja'fari fiqh, a distinction is made between "fetri" or "innate" apostates who grew up Muslims and remained Muslim after puberty until converting to another religion, and "national apostates"—essentially people who grew up non-Muslim and converted to Islam. "National apostates" are given a chance to repent, but "innate apostates are not.

;Children raised in apostasy

Orthodox apostasy fiqh can be problematic for someone who was raised by a non-Muslim (or non-Muslims) but has an absentee Muslim parent, or was raised by an apostate (or apostates) from Islam. A woman born to a Muslim parent is considered an apostate if she marries a non-Muslim, even if her Muslim parent did not raise her and she has always practiced another religion; and whether or not they know anything about Islam, by simply practicing the (new) religion of their parent(s) they become apostates (according to the committee of fatwa scholars at Islamweb.net).

;Contemporary issues of defining apostasy
In the 19th, 20th and 21 century issues affecting shariʿah on apostasy include modern norms of freedom of religion, the status of members of Baháʼí (considered unbeliever/apostates in Iran) and Ahmadi faiths (considered appostates from Islam in Pakistan and elsewhere), those who "refuse to judge or be judged according to the ''shariʿah,''" and more recently the status of Muslims authorities and governments that do not implement classical ''shariʿah'' law in its completeness.

Punishment

There are differences of opinion among Islamic scholars about whether, when and especially how apostasy in Islam should be punished.

From 11th century onwards, apostasy of Muslims from Islam was forbidden by Islamic law, earlier apostasy law was only applicable if a certain number of witnesses testify which for the most past was impossible. Apostasy was punishable by death and also by civil liabilities such as seizure of property, children, annulment of marriage, loss of inheritance rights. (A subsidiary law, also applied throughout the history of Islam, forbade non-Muslims from proselytizing Muslims to leave Islam and join another religion, because it encouraged Muslims to commit a crime). Starting in the 19th century the legal code of many Muslim states no longer included apostasy as a capital crime, and to compensate some Islamic scholars called for vigilante justice of hisbah to execute the offenders (see Apostasy in Islam#Colonial era and after).

In contemporary times the majority of Islamic jurists still regard apostasy as a crime deserving the death penalty, (according to Abdul Rashied Omar), although "a growing body of Islamic jurists" oppose this, (according to Javaid Rehman)
as inconsistent with "freedom of religion" as expressed in the Quranic injunctions (-) and ("there is no compulsion in religion"); and a relic of the early Islamic community when apostasy was desertion or treason.

Still others support a "centrist or moderate position" of executing only those whose apostasy is "unambiguously provable" such as if two just Muslim eyewitnesses testify; and/or reserving the death penalty for those who make their apostacy public. According to
Christine Schirrmacher, "a majority of theologians" embrace this stance.

Who qualifies for judgement for the crime of apostasy

As mentioned above, there are numerous doctrinal fine points outlined in fiqh manuals whose violation should render the violator an apostate, but there are also hurdles and exacting requirements that spare (self-proclaimed) Muslims conviction for apostasy in classical fiqh.

One motive for caution is that it is an act of apostasy (in Shafi'i and other fiqh) for a Muslim to accuse or describe another innocent Muslim of being an unbeliever, based on the hadith where Muhammad is reported to have said: "If a man says to his brother, 'You are an infidel,' then one of them is right."

According to sharia, to be found guilty the accused must at the time of apostasizing be exercising free will, an adult, and of sound mind, and have refused to repent when given a time period to do so (not all schools include this last requirement). The free will requirement excludes from judgement those who embraced Islam under conditions of duress and then went back to their old religion, or Muslims who converted to another religion involuntarily, either force or as concealment (Taqiyya or Kitman) out of fear of persecution or during war.

Some of these requirements have served as "loopholes" to exonerate apostates (apostasy charges against Abdul Rahman, were dropped on the grounds he was "mentally unfit").

Death penalty

In classical fiqh

Traditional Sunni and Shia Islamic fiqhs, or schools of jurisprudence ( maḏāhib) agree on some issues—that male apostates should be executed, and that most but not all perpetrators should not be given a chance to repent (the excluded include those who practice magic (''subhar''), treacherous heretics ('' zanādiqa'', and recidivists"). They disagree on issues such as whether women can be executed,Frank Griffel (2001), Toleration and exclusion: al-Shafi 'i and al-Ghazali on the treatment of apostates, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 64(03), pp. 348–349David F Forte (2011)
Islam’s Trajectory
, Revue des Sciences Politiques, No. 29, pp. 93, 97–98, 92–101 whether apostasy is a violation of "the rights of God",Mohamed El-Awa (1993), Punishment in Islamic Law, American Trust Publications, , pp. 53–54, 1–68 whether apostates who were born Muslim may be spared if they repent, whether conviction requires the accused be a practicing Muslim, or whether it is enough to simply intend to commit apostasy rather than actually doing it.
*Hanafi – recommends three days of imprisonment before execution, although the delay before killing the Muslim apostate is not mandatory. Apostasy is not a Hudood crime. Unlike in other schools it is not obligatory to call on the apostate to repent. Apostate men are to be killed, while women are to be held in solitary confinement and beaten every three days till they recant and return to Islam. Penalty for Apostasy limited for those who cause Hirabah after leaving Islam, not for personal religion change.
*Maliki – allows up to ten days for recantation, after which the apostate must be killed. Apostasy is a Hudood crime. Both men and women apostates deserve death penalty according to the traditional view of Sunni Maliki fiqh. Unlike other schools, the apostate must have a history of being "good" (i.e. practicing) Muslim.
*Shafi'i – waiting period of three days is required to allow the Muslim apostate time to repent and return to Islam. Failing repentance, execution is the recommended punishment for both men and women. Apostasy is not a Hudood crime.
*Hanbali – waiting period not necessary, but may be granted. Apostasy is a Hudood crime. Execution is traditional punishment for both genders of Muslim apostates.
*Ja'fari – Male apostates must be executed, while a female apostate must be held in solitary confinement till she repents and returns to Islam. Apostasy is a Hudood crime. The "mere intention of unbelief" without expression qualifies as apostasy. Unlike the other schools, repentance will not save a defendant from execution unless they are "national apostates" who were not born Muslims but converted to Islam before apostasizing although it is disputed by some scholars. "Innate" apostates, who grew up Muslims and remained Muslim after puberty and until converting to another religion, should be executed.

Vigilante application

In contemporary situations where apostates, (or alleged apostates), have ended up being killed, it is usually not be through the formal criminal justice system, especially when "a country's law does not punish apostasy." It is not uncommon in some countries for "vigilante" Muslims to kill or attempt to kill apostates or alleged apostates (or force them to flee the country). In at least one case, (the high profile execution of Mahmud Muhammad Taha), the victim was legally executed and the government made clear he was being executed for apostasy, but not the technical "legal basis" for his killing was another crime or crimes, namely "heresy, opposing the application of Islamic law, disturbing public security, provoking opposition against the government, and re-establishing a banned political party." When post-modernist professor Nasr Abu Zayd was found to be an apostate by an Egyptian court, it meant only an involuntary divorce from his wife (who did not want to divorce), but it put the proverbial target on his back and he fled to Europe.Professor Nasr Hamed Abu Zaid: Modernist islamic philosopher who was forced into exile by fundamentalists
, By Adel Darwish , 14 July 2010 , The Independent

Civil liabilities

In Islam, apostasy has traditionally had both criminal and civil penalties. In the late 19th century, when the use of criminal penalties for apostasy fell into disuse, civil penalties were still applied. The punishment for the criminal penalties such as murder includes death or prison, while In all madhhabs of Islam, the civil penalties include:
:(a) the property of the apostate is seized and distributed to his or her Muslim relatives;
:(b) his or her marriage annulled (''faskh'') (as in the case of Nasr Abu Zayd);
::(1) if they were not married at the time of apostasy they could not get married
:(c) any children removed and considered ward of the Islamic state.
:(d) In case the entire family has left Islam, or there are no surviving Muslim relatives recognized by Sharia, the apostate's inheritance rights are lost and property is liquidated by the Islamic state (part of ''fay'', الْفيء).
:(e) In case the apostate is not executed -- such as in case of women apostates in Hanafi school -- the person also loses all inheritance rights.Kazemi F. (2000)
Gender, Islam, and politics
Social Research, Vol. 67, No. 2, pp. 453–74 Hanafi Sunni school of jurisprudence allows waiting till execution, before children and property are seized; other schools do not consider this wait as mandatory but mandates time for repentance.

;Social liabilities
The conversion of a Muslim to another faith is often considered a "disgrace" and "scandal" as well as a sin, so in addition to penal and civil penalties, loss of employment, ostracism and proclamations by family members that they are "dead", is not at all "unusual". For those who wish to remain in the Muslim community but who are considered unbelievers by other Muslims, there are also "serious forms of ostracism". These include the refusal of other Muslims to pray together with or behind a person accused of kufr, the denial of the prayer for the dead and burial in a Muslim cemetery, boycott of whatever books they have written, etc.

Supporters and opponents of death penalty

;Support among contemporary Preachers and scholars

"The vast majority of Muslim scholars both past as well as present" consider apostasy "a crime deserving the death penalty", according to Abdul Rashided Omar, writing circa 2007. Some notable contemporary proponents include:

*Abul A'la Maududi (1903-1979), who "by the time of his death had become the most widely read Muslim author of our time", according to one source.
*Mohammed al-Ghazali (1917–1996), considered an Islamic "moderate" and "preeminent" faculty member of Egypt's preeminent Islamic institution—Al Azhar University− as well as a valuable ally of the Egyptian government in its struggle against the "growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism", was "widely credited" with contributing to the 20th century Islamic revival in the largest Arabic country, Egypt. (Al-Ghazali was on record as declaring all those who opposed the implementation of sharia law to be apostates who should ideally be punished by the state, but "when the state fails to punish apostates, somebody else has to do it".
*Yusuf al-Qaradawi (b. 1926), another "moderate" Islamist, chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, who as of 2009 was "considered one of the most influential" Islamic scholars living.No.9 Sheikh Dr Yusuf al Qaradawi, Head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars – "The 500 most influential Muslims in the world 2009", Prof John Esposito and Prof Ibrahim Kalin – Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
*Zakir Naik, Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher,
Shukla, Ashutosh
"Muslim group welcomes ban on preacher"
. ''Daily News and Analysis''. 22 June 2010. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 7 August 2011. whose Peace TV channel, reaches a reported 100 million viewers, and whose debates and talks are widely distributed,"Maldivian renounces Islam, gets attacked by Zakir Naik audience"
May 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2011
Archived
7 August 2011.
supports the death penalty only for those apostates who "propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam" as he considers it treason.

* Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid, a Syrian Islamic scholar, considered a respected scholar in the Salafi movement (according to Al Jazeera); and founder of the fatwa website IslamQA, one of the most popular Islamic websites, and (as of November 2015 and according to Alexa.com) the world's most popular website on the topic of Islam generally (apart from the website of an Islamic bank).Deutsche Welle: "Women in Islam: Behind the veil and in front of it"
retrieved September 2, 2016

;Opposing the death penalty for apostasy

*Intisar Rabb, faculty director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School.
*Shafi`i jurists Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa of Egypt.Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa
Gomaa's Statement on Apostasy
, ''The Washington Post'', 25 July 2007.
*Fiqh scholar Taha Jabir Alalwani (1935-2016).
*Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri (1922-2009).
* Grand Ayatollah Hussein Esmaeel al-Sadr.
*Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a Pakistani Muslim theologian, Quran scholar.
*Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Muslim academic, philosopher, and writer. He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies.
*Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American scholar of religious studies and writer.
* Jonathan A.C. Brown, a Muslim American scholar of Islamic studies.
* Rudolph F. Peters, Gert Vries, scholars of Islam.
*Khaled Abou El Fadl, scholar of Islamic law.
* S. A. Rahman, a former Chief Justice of Pakistan.
*Mahmud Shaltut, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (1958–1963).

Rationale, arguments, criticism for and against killing apostates

The question of whether apostates should be killed, has been "a matter for contentious dispute throughout Islamic history".
;For the death penalty
Throughout Islamic history the Muslim community, scholars, and schools of fiqh have agreed that scripture prescribes this penalty; scripture must take precedence over reason or modern norms of human rights, as Islam is the one true religion; "no compulsion in religion" (Q.2:256) does not apply to this punishment; apostasy is "spiritual and cultural" treason; it hardly ever happens and so is not worth talking about.
*Abul A'la Maududi said that among early Muslims, among the schools of fiqh both Sunni and Shia, among scholars of shari'ah "of every century ... available on record", there is unanimous agreement that the punishment for apostate is death, and that "no room whatever remains to suggest" that this penalty has not "been continuously and uninterruptedly operative" through Islamic history; evidence from early texts that Muhammad called for apostates to be killed, and that companions of the Prophet and early caliphs ordered beheadings and crucifixions of apostates and has never been declared invalid over the course of the history of Islamic theology (Christine Schirrmacher).
**"Many hadiths", not just "one or two", call for the killing of apostates (Yusuf al-Qaradawi);
**Verse Q.2:217 — "hindering ˹others˺ from the Path of Allah, rejecting Him, and expelling the worshippers from the Sacred Mosque is ˹a˺ greater ˹sin˺ in the sight of Allah" — indicates the punishment for apostasy from Islam is death (Mohammad Iqbal Siddiqi), Quranic verses in general "appear to justify coercion and severe punishment" for apostates (Dale F. Eickelman).
**If this doctrine is called into question, what's next? — ritual prayer (salat)? fasting (sawm)? even Muhammad's mission? (Abul A'la Maududi).
*It "does not merit discussion" because he advocates maintainapostasy from Islam is so rare, (Ali Kettani), (Mahmud Brelvi); before the modern era, there was virtually no apostasy from Islam (Syed Barakat Ahmad);
**the punishment is "rarely invoked" because there are numerous qualifications or ways for the apostate to avoid death (to be found guilty they must openly reject Islam, have made their decision without coercion, be aware of the nature of their statements, be an adult, be completely sane, refused to repent, etc.) (Religious Tolerance website).
**or because the verse only forbids compulsion to believe "things that are wrong", when it comes to accepting the truth, compulsion is allowed (Peters and Vries explaining a traditional view);
**Others maintain that verse Q.2:256 has been " abrogated", i.e. according to classical Quranic scholars it has been overruled/cancelled by verses of Quran revealed later, (IOW, compulsion was not allow in the very earliest days of Islam but this was changed by divine revelation a few years later) (Peters and Vries explaining traditional view).
**Because "the social order of every Moslem society is Islam", apostasy constitutes "an offense" against that social order, "that may lead in the end to the destruction of this order" (Muhammad Muhiy al-Din al-Masiri);
**Apostasy is usually "a psychological pretext for rebellion against worship, traditions and laws and even against the foundations of the state", and so "is often synonymous with the crime of high treason ... " (Muhammad al-Ghazali);

;Against death penalty
Arguments against the death penalty include: that some scholars throughout Islamic history have opposed that punishment for apostasy; that it constitutes a form of compulsion in faith, which the Quran explicitly forbids in Q.2.256 and other verses, and that these override any other scriptural arguments; and especially that the death penalty in hadith and applied by Muhammad was for treasonous/seditious behavior, not for a change in personal belief.

* How can it be claimed that there was a consensus among scholars or community (''ijma'') from the beginning of Islam in favor of capital punishment when a number of companions of Muhammad and early Islamic scholars (Ibn al-Humam, al-Marghinani, Ibn Abbas, Sarakhsi, Ibrahim al-Nakh'i), opposed the execution of ''murtadd''? (Mirza Tahir Ahmad);
**in addition there have been a number of prominent ulema (though a minority) over the centuries who argued against the death penalty for apostasy in some way, such as ...
***The Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji (d. 474 AH) held that apostasy was liable only to a discretionary punishment (known as ''ta'zir

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