DEATH PENALTY FOR APOSTASY REBELLION

One can accept Islam freely, but one cannot give it up with the same freedom.  The punishment for apostasy-for giving up Islam-is death, though not by burning.  �Once a group of men apostatized from Islam.  �Ali burnt them to death.  When Ibn �AbbAs heard about it, he said: If I had been in his place, I would have put them to sword for I have heard the apostle say, Kill an apostate but do not burn him for Fire is Allah�s agency for punishing the sinners� (TirmizI, vol. I, 1357).  Eight men of the tribe of �Ukl became Muslims and emigrated to Medina.  The climate of Medina did not suit them.  Muhammad allowed them �to go to the camels of sadaqa and drink their milk and urine� (urine was considered curative).  Away from the control of the Prophet, they killed the shepherds, took the camels and turned away from Islam.  The Prophet sent twenty ansArs after them with an expert tracker who could follow their footprints.  The apostates were brought back.  �He [the Holy Prophet] got their hands cut off, and their feet, and put out their eyes, and threw them on the stony ground until they died� (4130).  Another hadIs adds that while on the stony ground �they were asking for water, but they were not given water� (4132).

The translator gives us the verse from the QurAn according to which these men were punished: �The just recompense for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is that they should be murdered, or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides, or they should be exiled� (QurAn 5:36).

author : ram swarup