Posted on 05/19/2008 11:07:58 AM PDT by ncfool
Obama might really be in trouble with the Islamic world. How would you like to have this kind of target hanging around your head. While most of us agree he is hiding his true religion even to the point where we think he is a Stealth Canidate or a Manchurian Canidate he carries a big burden in the faith of his family. We all know the Islamic folks are crazy but this is a ref from a book published in 1994.
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THE PUNISHMENT OF THE APOSTATE ACCORDING TO ISLAMIC LAW
Publisher's Request 11 Preface by the Author
12
I The Problem of the Apostate's Execution from a Legal Perspective 13 A. Proof from the Qur'an for the Commandment to Execute the Apostate 14 B. Proof from the Hadith for the Commandment to Execute the Apostate 15 C. View of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs 17 D. The First Caliph's Jihad against Apostates 19 E. Agreement of the Leading Mujtahids 21
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translated and annotated by
Syed Silas Husain and Ernest Hahn
1994
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Dedicated to Christian converts from Islam, who have contributed so much to the Kingdom of God and the Church, who have ministered, physically and spiritually, among their Muslim brothers and sisters, who have died as martyrs for confessing Jesus the Messiah as their Saviour and Lord.
Jesus said:
How blest you are, when you suffer insults and persecution and every kind of calumny for my sake. Accept it with gladness and exultation, for you have a rich reward in heaven; in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you. (Matt. 5:11,12)
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CONTENTS
Introduction 1 A. Why This Translation 1 B. Why This Translation: A Personal Note (Syed Silas Husain) 4 C. About Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi 6 D. Translating and Editing Concerns 7 E. Anticipating Some Readers' Thoughts 8
THE PUNISHMENT OF THE APOSTATE ACCORDING TO ISLAMIC LAW
Publisher's Request 11 Preface by the Author
12
I The Problem of the Apostate's Execution from a Legal Perspective 13 A. Proof from the Qur'an for the Commandment to Execute the Apostate 14 B. Proof from the Hadith for the Commandment to Execute the Apostate 15 C. View of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs 17 D. The First Caliph's Jihad against Apostates 19 E. Agreement of the Leading Mujtahids 21
II The Problem of the Propagation of Kufr in the House of Islam 27 A. Investigating the Problem 27 B. The Fundamental Objective of Islamic Rule 29 C. The Position of Dhimmis and Protected Ones in the House of Islam 30 D. The Course of Action during the Period of the Prophet and the Rightly Guided Caliphs 30
III The Execution of the Apostate: A Rational Consideration 32 A. The Arguments of the Critics 32 B. A Fundamental Misconception 34 C. The Natural Requirement of an Organized Society 35 D. Response to Criticisms 36 E. The Basic Difference Between a Mere Religion and a Religious State 38 F. The Legal Right of the Government 39 G. The Example of England 40 H. The Example of America 42 I. The Natural Right of the State 43 J. Why Distinguish between the Kafir (Infidel) and the Murtadd (Apostate) 43 K. The Danger of Counterattack 46 L. Muslims by Birth 48
IV Concerning the Propagation of Kufr: The Rationale of the Islamic Stance 52
Appendices A. The Dhimmi 55 B. Apostasy in Islam and Its Punishment: Some Quotations 57 C. A Recent Pronouncement from Lebanon on Apostasy 73 D. A Prisoner's Testament in Iran 77 E. Interpreting Qur'an 2:256 81 F. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 87
Glossary 91
Introduction
A. Why This Translation
Why the need to translate Abul Ala Mawdudi's book The Punishment of the Apostate according to Islamic Law?[1] Here are two reasons.
1. The Islamic law of apostasy is a symptom of a strong and pervasive traditional Muslim attitude, religious and political, toward non-Muslims and the non-Islamic world. Despite the legal pronouncement of Islam upon Salman Rushdie the West has hardly recognized the law of apostasy in Islam. It is imperative that Westerners, especially with the intensifying orthodox Islamic revival throughout the world and the continued growth of Muslim presence in the West, become more familiar with this law also.
2. Abul Ala Mawdudi has been one of the most influential religious thinkers of the Muslim World in the 20th century. His presentation of the subject is an unusually full and lucid exposition of the theological and legal foundations of the traditional understanding of the law of apostasy and its punishment in Islam and a contemporary rational justification for its continued implementation.
It is hoped that the following points will further elucidate a rationale for the translation of Mawdudi's book and provide a fuller context for a wider discussion on the subject:
1. Many Muslims disagree with Abul Ala Mawdudi's understanding and argumentation. In fact, Mawdudi's book indicates serious doubt of other Muslims (at least on the Indian subcontinent) about the validity and integrity of the law and the main issues at stake: a. the actual meaning of apostasy; b. its presence and significance in the Qur'an; c. the relation of Qur'an 2:256 ("There is no compulsion in religion") to the law. This particular verse is central to the more liberal exposition of the law of apostasy found in the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, S. A. Rahman's book Punishment of Apostasy in Islam[2], in which he castigates the traditionalists' abuse of the sources of Islam (the Qur'an and the Hadith). Still, virtually all Muslims in the East who possess any serious grasp of early Islamic history recognize the law of apostasy and its implementation as far back as Abu Bakr's wars in Arabia against the Arabs who wished to secede from the Muslim community shortly after Muhammad's death and the pervasive influence of this law throughout Islamic history up to the present.
2. On occasions in the past, no doubt, Muslims have moderated the penalty for the law of apostasy, whether because of external or internal political pressures or other reasons. No doubt, in past and present some converts have left Islam for Christianity (or other religions) and lived as Christians with little or no obvious Muslim opposition. Even fewer have been executed.
Nevertheless it is also true that in various parts of the world converts -- their numbers are significant -- have endured persecutions physically and psychologically, at times violently. The techniques are varied. Some converts are tortured. Few in traditional Muslim countries escape unscathed. At times even the convert's Muslim family members are subjected to severe harassment to induce the convert to return to Islam. The persecution emanates from governments, officially or unofficially, from Muslim communities, or simply from one or two zealous individuals, possibly a relative and even a father, intent on taking the law into his own hands when he thinks the government or community has failed to do its job. Even some converts from Islam in the West exercise caution in Muslim circles, fearing possible retaliation upon themselves or even their families in their native lands, while, paradoxically, converts to Islam in the West (from Christianity, Judaism, another religion or no religion) boldly and with no need to fear announce their conversion privately and publicly and extol the virtues of Islam, including its freedom!
3. People from the East, Muslim and non-Muslim minorities and Westerners who have spent time in Muslim countries are aware of the law of apostasy. But otherwise how many Westerners are aware that it even exists, not to speak about its nature and history? Or, given an awareness of its existence, does it exist simply as an aberration of Islam? Is it possibly a later accretion with no roots in Islamic sources, perhaps even a figment of Western imperialist and missionary imagination, another false allegation of "the Orientalists"?
If Westerners are interested in International Human Rights, including Muslim expressions of human rights, they will be interested in the law of apostasy and Mawdudi's exposition of it in this work.[3] Diplomats and other personnel concerned with immigration and refugees may find it illuminating, probably even more so since (if our limited evidence is at all indicative) many immigration officials seem unfamiliar with it. If our government documentation centres provide basic information on the persecution of Baha'is and Ahmadis, do they provide something comparable on the persecution of Jews and Christians living as minorities among Muslims? If not, is it because Christians have not provided them with the information?
Are Christians in the West, in fact, concerned with such problems? Should they be? If documentation centres are devoid of information about Muslim apostates who have become Christians, does this reflect the Western Christian Church's ignorance? Or, assuming church awareness, is the plight of the convert a possible inconvenience and even embarrassment to the church, especially a church whose great priority in its relations with other religions has become simply reconciliation between religions or peoples of different religions rather than the proclamation of God's reconciliation with humankind through His Messiah? Is the suffering of converts, converts to Christianity also, because of conversion a concern of the ecumenical Church? Occasionally one hears of Muslim surprise about (= disdain for?) Christians who appear indifferent toward their persecuted Christian brothers and sisters. Did not early Christian worship regularly include remembrance of the martyrs and other Christians suffering for their faith, as they also shared in the Eucharist in remembrance of the Messiah's suffering and death?
Though there are Muslims in the West who are aware and supportive of Islam's law of apostasy, it is hardly surprising that they talk little about it. On the other hand many Muslims concerned with Islam's image in the West vehemently insist that Islam proclaims religious tolerance and freedom, as if the law of apostasy never existed or is now obsolete. Do they know the law of apostasy, its sources, its history, its current implementation? Is it that they, to paraphrase Mawdudi, have removed it from the rule book because it is inconvenient to keep it in the West?
Like the Islamic pronouncement upon Salman Rushdie, the law of apostasy is not simply "an obscene edict from a fanatic sect in Islam".[4] It has a profound connection with Islamic source materials, with all traditional Sunni and Shi'i Islamic legal schools, with Islamic history since its inception. Its legality is a contentious issue in some nations today. Many able and sophisicated Muslim leaders and thinkers justify it and call for its revival and implementation. In short the law of apostasy in Islam is not just a relic of the past but quite alive and well.
B. Why This Translation: A Personal Note (Syed Silas Husain)
Until recently I had never felt the need for documentary evidence to understand Islam's traditional punishment for apostasy. Since the time of my conversion from Islam to Christianity in India about three decades ago, I have personally experienced its intention and direction through verbal and physical persecution, including two attempts on my life by Muslims who believed that an apostate from Islam should be killed. (By what Islamic standard did they measure themselves to be qualified to assume this responsibility?)
Who ever said Obama was an apostate? According to the spokesmen for his “church,” they have many Muslim members. So there’s obviously no conflict between this “church” and Islam. Futhermore, “pastor” Wright was orginally a Black Muslim, and only when he found out that the paycheck was better under the umbrella of a liberal Protestant denomination did he make his move. But the fact that he and Farrakhan are still good buddies and that his “church” honors Farrakhan indicates to me that Wright (and hence, Obama) is not considered technically to have moved out of Islam at all.
Then Obama needs to proclaim to the American Voter that is is a Muslim.
Just ‘cause I want to ask: Were you given a Muslim name at birth? If so, did you change it 30 years ago?
He can't win the White House a a Mooslime! If he is an apostate then he won't be in office for long, somewhere out there, there is a bullet with his name on it, or a very long sword waiting to cut off his head and put it on YouTube. with much praise from the Mooslime community, they will be yelling from the rooftops "Allah Akbar" the apostate is dead!
ACHMED THE DEAD TERRORIST SAYS "I KILL YOU INFIDEL"
He does need to be honest with America. He talks about it in his book Audacity of Hope. So why not be honest? Oh that’s right he is a politiican.
What’s Keith Ellison say?
If Wright is still a Muslim is doubtful.
His congregation is steeped in liberation theology.
Liberation theology is virulent communism mixed with lackluster Christianity in favor of communism. It is a different gospel than that contained in the Scriptures.
Wright is a communist dressed up in church clothes. I doubt he would be any less so if he said he was a Muslim. Communism comes first.
If you think about it, it makes sense of Senator Obama’s friendship to Chavez too — who is also finds support with liberation theology.
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